Geology

Biography

Biography: Elhoucine Essefi

Abstract

This work is an extended literature review about the evolution of Martian exploration. For instance martian exploration experienced a noticeable improvement in terms of methodology and reached findings. Mars exploration may be conducted based on different types of missions: Remote sensing, independent landers, networks, penetrators, rovers, balloons, airplanes, and samples return missions. Our knowledge about the red planet has significantly increased. As a synonym for Mars' geology, the term areology (from the Greek word Arēs, i.e. Mars) sometimes appears in the popular media and works of science fiction but the term is rarely, if ever, used by professional geologists and planetary scientists. Divided into different sub-disciplines, martian geology argues full similarity with the field of terrestrial geology. As a sign of remarkable proliferation, the term Mars geology fully incorporates all branches of terrestrial geology such as geophysics, geochemistry, mineralogy, geodesy, hydrology, hydrogeology, tectonics, geodynamics, climatology, cartography, sedimentology, and stratigraphy. In the Arab word, few are the studies dealing with Mars. In this vein, Emirate Mission to Mars is a first ambitious notice. Nonetheless, this mission should be well integrated within the state of the art of areology to provide with relevant data helping in understanding the as yet unsolved issues. In addition, it should target the site candidate to contain the most relevant geological and potential biological processes. Our recent work presents Argyre basin as a prime target for in situ Astrobiological Exploration of Mars. For this reason, I propose the Argyre basin as target site of Emirate Mission to Mars.