One of the biggest risks of the Mars landing is the potential of crashing into a giant rock. "Internationally, fewer than half the (landing) attempts have succeeded," said NASA's Weiler. But for this landing detailed images from a high-resolution camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter could help find a safe spot.
NASA has mapped the potential landing area in grids to count the number of rocks in each one. Bright green shows areas with the fewest number of rocks.
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