This is an image of a plateau and surrounding steep slopes within the Valles Marineris.
Click on image for full size
Image from: Malin Space Science Systems
Questions about Mars to be addressed by the Mars Surveyor Program
After decades of exploration of Mars, many questions still remain.
- Water on Mars
- Has all the water that formed the channels and integrated drainage systems escaped to space or is it sequestered in the ground and polar caps?
- What are the implications of sequestered water on the present and past climate of Mars?
- The climate of Mars
- Differentiation of the surface
- How and when did Mars experience mineral separation and evolution of the surface?
- Did the crust of Mars stop evolving, and if so when & why?
- Crustal history of Mars
- What caused the global dichotomy of the surface (old southern highlands, young northern lowlands)?
- Carbonate on the surface and CO2 in the atmosphere of Mars
- If Mars had an early thick atmosphere, where is all the CO2 ( and CO3-) now? (Unlike H or He, CO2 does not readily escape from an atmosphere)
- Does Mars have a magnetic field?
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