The bit of mars that fascinates me is the Hellis Planitia[1] A huge hole roughly opposite the globe from the large volcano complex[2] coincidence.. I think not.
I am vaguely surprised it was not higher rated for a rover mission. 7k meters down should do something interesting to the atmosphere if nothing else.
Yeah it's the one place that crosses the triple point of water, not by a huge margin, but likely enough to trigger planetary protection concern.
But there's places like the araneiform terrain where you likely get much higher transient pressures, and maybe they create enough of a greenhouse effect to warm up before they burst through the CO2 ice crust. They'd be a great way for life to spread mechanically using those pressurized bursts.
I am vaguely surprised it was not higher rated for a rover mission. 7k meters down should do something interesting to the atmosphere if nothing else.
1. https://trek.nasa.gov/mars/#v=0.1&x=72.07800218650755&y=-42....
2. https://trek.nasa.gov/mars/#v=0.1&x=-116.4913302335018&y=16....
But there's places like the araneiform terrain where you likely get much higher transient pressures, and maybe they create enough of a greenhouse effect to warm up before they burst through the CO2 ice crust. They'd be a great way for life to spread mechanically using those pressurized bursts.
So if you can get 7km down without digging, that's the first place to look!