Martian Landing Area Morphology Interpretation and Quantitative Analysis of the Zhurong Rover

Abstract

Tianwen-1 lander and rover successfully landed in the southern Utopia Planitia of Mars on May 15, 2021. As China's first Mars exploration mission, Tianwen-1 achieved orbiting, landing and patrolling tasks in one mission. In this paper, we apply the photogrammetry methods to produce mapping products from high-resolution orbiter remote sensing images, and to analyze the landing area environment. The environment of the landing area is not only important for the path planning and safe driving of the Mars rover, but also provides fundamental information for science research. Mainly focuses on the Tianwen-1 landing area (within the surrounding 20 km of the landing point), and utilizes the 5 m/pixel CTX DOM and Tianwen-1 DEM product data to quantitatively analysis the impact crater density, impact crater depth, depth-to-diameter ratio, etc. Further interpretation and analysis of the geomorphic feature and geological background of the landing area are conducted. The results show that there are many small craters, transverse aeolian ridge, pitted cones, structural ridges and throughs in the region, most of the impact craters on the surface of the landing area are secondary craters or degraded impact craters, with an aspect ratio between 0.001 to 0.136. In addition to in-depth analysis of the geological and geomorphological features of the landing area, the crater statistics and geomorphic feature analysis are valuable for geological evolution study of the Utopia Planitia.

Keywords

Zhurong rover / landing area / high-resolution image / impact craters