Quote:
|
NASA chose Jezero Crater as the landing site for the Perseverance rover. Scientists believe the area was once flooded with water and was home to an ancient river delta. The process of landing site selection involved a combination of mission team members and scientists from around the world, who carefully examined more than 60 candidate locations on the Red Planet. After the exhaustive five-year study of potential sites, each with its own unique characteristics and appeal, Jezero rose to the top.
|
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/missi.../landing-site/
More at the link.
Landing in a canyon like that would be even more challenging. Think of the grand canyon and how little of it is flat. Once you are in there, you may not be able to move much. You also greatly limit communications because you have a much smaller window to the sky.