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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 37 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1986

Exobiology and Future Mars Missions: The Search for Mars' Earliest Biosphere

The primordial Mars may have possessed a thick carbon dioxide atmosphere, with liquid water Common on the surface, similar in many ways to the primordial Earth. During this epoch, billions of years ago, the surface of Mars could have been conducive to the origin of life. It is possible that life evolved on Mars to be later eliminated as the atmospheric pressure dropped. Analysis of the surface of Mars for the traces of this early martian biota could provide many insights into the phenomenon of life and its coupling to planetary evolution.

McKay, Christopher P.↗
NASA NTRS2000

In-Situ Environmental Measurements Needed for Future Mars Missions

Existing measurements and modeling studies indicate that the climate and general circulation of the thin, predominately CO2 Martian atmosphere are characterized by large-amplitude variations with a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Remote sensing observations from Earth-based telescopes and the Mariner 9, Viking, Phobos, and Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) orbiters show that the prevailing climate includes large-scale seasonal variations in surface and atmospheric temperatures (140 to 300 K), dust optical depth (0.15 to 1), and water vapor (10 to 100 precipitable microns). These observations also provided the first evidence for episodic regional and global dust storms that produce even larger perturbations in the atmospheric thermal structure and general circulation. In-situ measurements by the Viking and Mars Pathfinder Landers reinforced these conclusions, documenting changes in the atmospheric pressure on diurnal (5%) and seasonal (>20%) time scales, as well as large diurnal variations in the near-surface temperature (40 to 70 K), wind velocity (0 to 35 m/s), and dust optical depth (0.3 to 6). These in-situ measurements also reveal phenomena with temporal and spatial scales that cannot be resolved from orbit, including rapid changes in near-surface temperatures (+/- 10 K in 10 seconds), large near-surface vertical temperature gradients (+/- 15 K/meter), diurnally-varying slope winds, and dust devils . Modeling studies indicate that these changes are forced primarily by diurnal and seasonal variations in solar insolation, but they also include contributions from atmospheric thermal tides, baroclinic waves (fronts), Kelvin waves, slope winds, and monsoonal flows from the polar caps.

Crisp, D.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Searching for Life with Rovers: Exploration Methods & Science Results from the 2004 Field Campaign of the "Life in the Atacama" Project and Applications to Future Mars Missions

The Life In The Atacama (LITA) project develops and field tests a long-range, solarpowered, automated rover platform (Zo ) and a science payload assembled to search for microbial life in the Atacama desert. Life is barely detectable over most of the driest desert on Earth. Its unique geological, climatic, and biological evolution have created a unique training site for designing and testing exploration strategies and life detection methods for the robotic search for life on Mars.

Cabrol, N. A.a↗
NASA NTRS2001

Navigation architecture for future Mars missions

Developing cost efficient individual flight projects that perform both orbital and surface exploraton will likely require intelligent infrastructure elements for critical functions such as navigation.

Mars navigation↗
NASA NTRS2013

Adaptable, Deployable Entry and Placement Technology (ADEPT) for Future Mars Missions

The concept of a mechanically deploy- able hypersonic decelerator, developed initially for high mass (40 MT) human Mars missions, is currently funded by OCT for technology maturation. The ADEPT (Adaptive, Deployable Entry and Placement Technology) project has broad, game-changing applicability to in situ science missions to Venus, Mars, and the Outer Planets.

TPS↗
NASA NTRS2013

A Mission Concept: Re-Entry Hopper-Aero-Space-Craft System on-Mars (REARM-Mars)

Future missions to Mars that would need a sophisticated lander, hopper, or rover could benefit from the REARM Architecture. The mission concept REARM Architecture is designed to provide unprecedented capabilities for future Mars exploration missions, including human exploration and possible sample-return missions, as a reusable lander, ascend/descend vehicle, refuelable hopper, multiple-location sample-return collector, laboratory, and a cargo system for assets and humans. These could all be possible by adding just a single customized Re-Entry-Hopper-Aero-Space-Craft System, called REARM-spacecraft, and a docking station at the Martian orbit, called REARM-dock. REARM could dramatically decrease the time and the expense required to launch new exploratory missions on Mars by making them less dependent on Earth and by reusing the assets already designed, built, and sent to Mars. REARM would introduce a new class of Mars exploration missions, which could explore much larger expanses of Mars in a much faster fashion and with much more sophisticated lab instruments. The proposed REARM architecture consists of the following subsystems: REARM-dock, REARM-spacecraft, sky-crane, secure-attached-compartment, sample-return container, agile rover, scalable orbital lab, and on-the-road robotic handymen.

Davoodi, Faranak↗
NASA NTRS1988

Cryogenic propulsion for lunar and Mars missions

Future missions to the moon and Mars have been investigated with regard to propulsion system selection. The results of this analysis show that near state-of-the-art LO2/LH2 propulsion technology provides a feasible means of performing lunar missions and trans-Mars injections. In other words, existing cryogenic space engines with certain modifications and product improvements would be suitable for these missions. In addition, present day cryogenic system tankage and structural weights appear to scale reasonably when sizing for large payload and high energy missions such as sending men to Mars.

Redd, Larry↗
NASA NTRS1991

Trajectory and navigation system design for robotic and piloted missions to Mars

Future Mars exploration missions, both robotic and piloted, may utilize Earth to Mars transfer trajectories that are significantly different from one another, depending upon the type of mission being flown and the time period during which the flight takes place. The use of new or emerging technologies for future missions to Mars, such as aerobraking and nuclear rocket propulsion, may yield navigation requirements that are much more stringent than those of past robotic missions, and are very difficult to meet for some trajectories. This article explores the interdependencies between the properties of direct Earth to Mars trajectories and the Mars approach navigation accuracy that can be achieved using different radio metric data types, such as ranging measurements between an approaching spacecraft and Mars orbiting relay satellites, or Earth based measurements such as coherent Doppler and very long baseline interferometry. The trajectory characteristics affecting navigation performance are identified, and the variations in accuracy that might be experienced over the range of different Mars approach trajectories are discussed. The results predict that three sigma periapsis altitude navigation uncertainties of 2 to 10 km can be achieved when a Mars orbiting satellite is used as a navigation aid.

Thurman, S. W.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Trajectory and navigation system design for robotic and piloted missions to Mars

Future Mars exploration missions, both robotic and piloted, may utilize Earth to Mars transfer trajectories that are significantly different from one another, depending upon the type of mission being flown and the time period during which the flight takes place. The use of new or emerging technologies for future missions to Mars, such as aerobraking and nuclear rocket propulsion, may yield navigation requirements that are much more stringent than those of past robotic missions, and are very difficult to meet for some trajectories. This article explores the interdependencies between the properties of direct Earth to Mars trajectories and the Mars approach navigation accuracy that can be achieved using different radio metric data types, such as ranging measurements between an approaching spacecraft and Mars orbiting relay satellites, or Earth based measurements such as coherent Doppler and very long baseline interferometry. The trajectory characteristics affecting navigation performance are identified, and the variations in accuracy that might be experienced over the range of different Mars approach trajectories are discussed. The results predict that three sigma periapsis altitude navigation uncertainties of 2 to 10 km can be achieved when a Mars orbiting satellite is used as a navigation aid.

Thurman, S. W.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Planetary Protection Issues in the Human Exploration of Mars

This workshop report, long delayed, is the first 21st century contribution to what will likely be a series of reports examining the effects of human exploration on the overall scientific study of Mars. The considerations of human-associated microbial contamination were last studied in a 1990 workshop ("Planetary Protection Issues and Future Mars Missions," NASA CP-10086, 1991), but the timing of that workshop allowed neither a careful examination of the full range of issues, nor an appreciation for the Mars that has been revealed by the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Pathfinder missions. Future workshops will also have the advantage of Mars Odyssey, the Mars Exploration Rover missions, and ESA's Mars Express, but the Pingree Park workshop reported here had both the NCR's (1992) concern that "Missions carrying humans to Mars will contaminate the planet" and over a decade of careful study of human exploration objectives to guide them and to reconcile. A daunting challenge, and one that is not going to be simple (as the working title of this meeting, "When Ecologies Collide?" might suggest), it is clear that the planetary protection issues will have to be addressed to enable human explorers to safely and competently extend out knowledge about Mars, and its potential as a home for life whether martian or human.

Criswell, Marvin E.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Autonomous Onboard Science Image Analysis for Future Mars Rover Missions

To explore high priority landing sites and to prepare for eventual human exploration, future Mars missions will involve rovers capable of traversing tens of kilometers. However, the current process by which scientists interact with a rover does not scale to such distances. Specifically, numerous command cycles are required to complete even simple tasks, such as, pointing the spectrometer at a variety of nearby rocks. In addition, the time required by scientists to interpret image data before new commands can be given and the limited amount of data that can be downlinked during a given command cycle constrain rover mobility and achievement of science goals. Experience with rover tests on Earth supports these concerns. As a result, traverses to science sites as identified in orbital images would require numerous science command cycles over a period of many weeks, months or even years, perhaps exceeding rover design life and other constraints. Autonomous onboard science analysis can address these problems in two ways. First, it will allow the rover to transmit only "interesting" images, defined as those likely to have higher science content. Second, the rover will be able to anticipate future commands. For example, a rover might autonomously acquire and return spectra of "interesting" rocks along with a high resolution image of those rocks in addition to returning the context images in which they were detected. Such approaches, coupled with appropriate navigational software, help to address both the data volume and command cycle bottlenecks that limit both rover mobility and science yield. We are developing fast, autonomous algorithms to enable such intelligent on-board decision making by spacecraft. Autonomous algorithms developed to date have the ability to identify rocks and layers in a scene, locate the horizon, and compress multi-spectral image data. Output from these algorithms could be used to autonomously obtain rock spectra, determine which images should be transmitted to the ground, or to aid in image compression. We will discuss these and other algorithms and demonstrate their performance during a recent rover field test.

Gulick, V. C.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Investigating the Applications of In-Situ Resource Utilization for Future Crewed Mars Missions

There are significant gaps in knowledge regarding the water ice on Mars and future preparation for human missions. So far, six rovers have traversed Mars’ rocky surface, aiming to understand the planet’s composition and search for signs of life. A rover mission set to explore the high northern latitudes of Mars with the goal of analyzing ice cores could greatly advance scientific knowledge to better understand Mars’s ancient climate and geochemistry. As of now, little has been accomplished in the exploration of colder regions and the extraction of water ice apart from the Phoenix lander and the Viking 2 mission; however, the science potential of the Phoenix and Viking landers was limited due to their inability to explore terrain like rovers. The exploration of the near-polar region Arcadia Planitia and its water ice deposits could reveal signs of past microbial life through preserved biosignatures. Additionally, to prepare for permanent human habitation on Mars, this proposed rover could continue the characterization of Mars’s current land and mineral composition, and search for materials that future humans may need on Mars (such as water for habitation, basalt for construction, and olivine for manufacturing purposes). This would increase understanding of the potential for in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) on Mars. The use of ISRU will reduce the amount of material needed on the initial flight, and similarly will reduce fuel costs. The mission to Arcadia Planitia incorporates the use of various mineral-extracting and imaging instruments (Martian Ice Core Analyzer, ground-penetrating radar, NavCam, Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer, SuperCam, etc.) to collect data from water ice and geologic samples. A near-polar rover mission to Mars would illuminate Mars’ past and present, while learning more about martian resources to benefit human explorers in the future.

Annika Sachdeva↗
NASA NTRS1993

Planetary protection implementation on future Mars lander missions

A workshop was convened to discuss the subject of planetary protection implementation for Mars lander missions. It was sponsored and organized by the Exobiology Implementation Team of the U.S./Russian Joint Working Group on Space Biomedical and Life Support Systems. The objective of the workshop was to discuss planetary protection issues for the Russian Mars '94 mission, which is currently under development, as well as for additional future Mars lander missions including the planned Mars '96 and U.S. MESUR Pathfinder and Network missions. A series of invited presentations was made to ensure that workshop participants had access to information relevant to the planned discussions. The topics summarized in this report include exobiology science objectives for Mars exploration, current international policy on planetary protection, planetary protection requirements developed for earlier missions, mission plans and designs for future U.S. and Russian Mars landers, biological contamination of spacecraft components, and techniques for spacecraft bioload reduction. In addition, the recent recommendations of the U.S. Space Studies Board (SSB) on this subject were also summarized. Much of the discussion focused on the recommendations of the SSB. The SSB proposed relaxing the planetary protection requirements for those Mars lander missions that do not contain life detection experiments, but maintaining Viking-like requirements for those missions that do contain life detection experiments. The SSB recommendations were found to be acceptable as a guide for future missions, although many questions and concerns about interpretation were raised and are summarized. Significant among the concerns was the need for more quantitative guidelines to prevent misinterpretation by project offices and better access to and use of the Viking data base of bioassays to specify microbial burden targets. Among the questions raised were how will the SSB recommendations be integrated with existing Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) policy and how will they apply to and affect Mars '94, Mars '96, MESUR Pathfinder, and MESUR Network missions? One additional topic briefly considered at the workshop was the identification of some issues related to planetary protection considerations for Mars sample return missions. These issues will form the basis for a follow-on joint U.S./Russian workshop on that subject.

Howell, Robert↗