NASA is quite serious about its Mars mission. An agency has started discussing destinations where astronauts will land on the Red Planet.

The discussions started two decades before the pioneers were scheduled to launch on the Red Planet. The space agency will organize a workshop in Houston this October. During the four-day meeting, discussions will take place on possible landing sites for NASA’s first manned Mars mission.

The agency aims to launch the Mars mission by mid-to-late 2030s. In the meeting, researchers will propose around 62-mile-wide exploration zones. These zones as per the researchers would have enough resources like sub-surface water ice that will aid human explorers.

Jim Green, head of NASA's Planetary Science Division, said a hot debate will take place during the October meeting. During the meeting, discussion will be on requirements to architect what a station on Mars should look like and how it will operate.

In the next few years, NASA is planning to use data from the agency's Mars Odyssey spacecraft and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), in order to know the most promising exploration zones. Both the spacecrafts started circling Mars in 2001 and 2006.

Green said, “Humans are going to need high-resolution over their whole exploration zone. Therefore, we need to know where they're going. It's really that simple”. He thinks that detailed information on the potential exploration zones' mineralogy will be important, as the agency will have a better idea on what is present on the planet.