Mars Geology: Virtual to real

In recent decades, an increasing number of spacecrafts have explored the Solar System with a wide range of on-board instruments that have acquired very different types of data to characterize planetary surfaces (topography, spectroscopy, optical imaging...). The best example is Mars, where several orbiters have explored its surface with a wide variety of instruments. These complementary instruments are the key to unravel the geological history of a planet, for which we need constraints on the age of the surface, its composition and its quantitative geomorphology.  Managing and combining this large and diverse dataset is challenging, but we can build on recent advances that now allow a virtual geological investigation of the surface of Mars. From these combined datasets, global and local studies have revealed the complex geological evolution of Mars, in particular the inventory of habitable sites across space and time. Virtual Martian geology is used not only to understand the evolution of Mars, but also to guide the selection of landing sites for in-situ rover missions. We will see how the combination of orbital data is used to down select a landing site for a rover mission, using the Exomars mission as an example, and how it also drives the long-term strategy of the rovers. With a particular focus on the Mars2020 mission, we will see how the combination of orbital data contributes to the diversity and relevance of the sample cache currently being collected on the surface of Mars by Perseverance for Mars Sample Return Program.