Geologic Mapping for the AMADEE24 analog mission to Mars simulated in Armenia.

Cartographic mapping has always been a key to exploration, starting from exploring planet Earth.  Since the dawn of the Apollo program, geologic mapping has been critical to all the phases of the mission.   The choice of the landing site depended on interpretations made on the orbital data base maps.   The planning of Extra Vehicular Activities (EVAs) required information on the expected terrain, including life-threatening hazards. The mission-specific geological maps served to place observations collected during the operation.  Finally, the geologic maps evolved after the mission, with the new knowledge acquired in-situ.  

Within the AMADEE24 mission to Armenia, we introduced geologic mapping to support the mission operation and the science made by the single experiments.  The pre-mission mapping will be based on remote sensing data.  Syn-mission mapping will introduce large-scale mapping around the region of interest where the human and robotic missions will operate.  Finally, we will work on the post-mission geologic mapping, which will synthesize scientific observations useful to understand better the nature of the materials and the sequence of the geologic processes of the AMADEE24 landing site.

Our work will present the activity done so far, especially the pre and syn-mission mapping done during the mission planned for Mars 2024.