top of page
'McMurdo' Panorama from Spirit's 'Winter Haven'. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell
LifeSprings Mars Logo

LifeSpringsMARS

Secondary Mission Aim

The secondary aim of the LifeSpringsMars mission is to collect a wide range of nearby volcanic and sedimentary rocks, and regolith that will help constrain a long interval of the early geological and environmental evolution of Mars. 

Within a distance of only a few hundred metres in the Columbia Hills and its surrounds are a range of volcanic and sedimentary rocks, and regolith that were formed across a long and critical period of Mars’ history. Collection of these samples will provide information about the evolution of Mars across the transition from early heavy bombardment, through the period of warm-and-wet conditions, to the onset of dry, cold conditions. 

Mars Columbia Hills Map
Sample locations

Extended sample suite for the LifeSpringsMars mission, by category.

Mars evolutionary history

The wide range of targets identified here that can be collected with relative ease at Columbia Hills will help constrain the early geological and environmental evolution of Mars.

Legend

The samples collected by the LifeSpringsMars mission will cover a critical part of Mars’s early evolutionary history.

bottom of page