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U.S. Participation in the Mars Express Mission
NASA will provide the antenna and RF subsystem to the MARSIS radar sounder. There are 11 U.S. Co-Investigators for the science investigations, and navigation and data archiving support are also provided. ASPERA-3 receives NASA Discovery Program funding. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.
Beagle 2 and NASA's Mars 2003 Orbiter: A Unique Exobiology Opportunity with an Orbiter
With the exploration strategy for Mars undergoing reexamination, the opportunity exists for the incorporation of the 60 kg Beagle 2 lander, developed in the United Kingdom for inclusion on ESA's 2003 Mars Express mission, with NASA's Mars 2003 orbiter derived from the Mars Global Orbiter. The combination of Beagle 2 with a Mars orbiter would result in a unique mission which could obtain information on Mars' life, climate and resources both from orbit as well as on the surface of the planet. Beagle 2 has been developed in the LJK for ESA as a low-cost opportunity to study the exobiology of Mars and the spacecraft is in its final stages of manufacture. Only limited modifications to the Beagle 2 package would be required for inclusion on NASA's Mars 2003 orbiter. With the ESA Mars Express mission launch in 2003 and a potential NASA Mars orbiter in 2003, both Beagle 2 landers on Mars would offer a low-cost, decreased risk and increased science return opportunity for the exploration of Mars at two distinct geologically interesting sites.
The MARSIS Science Mission
The Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) is an integral component of the Mars Express mission. A low-frequency sounding radar was carried on the Russian Mars 96 spacecraft, and in keeping with the concept of re-flying the science experiments lost on that mission, a call for a radar sounder was part of the Announcement of Opportunity for the 2003 ESA Mars Express mission. MARSIS is the only totally new instrument on Mars Express. The instrument was developed, delivered and operated as a joint effort between the Italian Space Agency and the U.S space agency NASA. The MARSIS science mission has been delayed due to concerns about the safety of the antenna deployment. As a testament to the importance placed on the
The Mars Express/NASA Project at JPL
An overview of the Mars Express/NASA Project at JPL is presented. The topics include: 1) Mars Express Mission Experiments and Investigators; 2) Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Soundig (MARSIS) Overview; 3) MARSIS Experiment Overview; 4) Interoperability Concept; 5) Mars Express Science Operations; 6) Mars Express Schedule (2003-2007);
Martian Methane From a Cometary Source: A Hypothesis
In recent years, methane in the martian atmosphere has been detected by Earth-based spectroscopy, the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer on the ESA Mars Express mission, and the NASA Mars Science Laboratory. The methane's origin remains a mystery, with proposed sources including volcanism, exogenous sources like impacts and interplanetary dust, aqueous alteration of olivine in the presence of carbonaceous material, release from ancient deposits of methane clathrates, and/or biological activity. An additional potential source exists: meteor showers from the emission of large comet dust particles could generate martian methane via UV pyrolysis of carbon-rich infall material. We find a correlation between the dates of Mars/cometary orbit encounters and detections of methane on Mars. We hypothesize that cometary debris falls onto Mars during these interactions, generating methane via UV photolysis.
Martian Atmospheric Methane Plumes from Meteor Shower Infall: A Hypothesis
Methane plumes in the martian atmosphere have been detected using Earth-based spectroscopy, the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer on the ESA Mars Express mission, and the NASA Mars Science Laboratory. The methane's origin remains a mystery, with proposed sources including volcanism, exogenous sources like impacts and interplanetary dust, aqueous alteration of olivine in the presence of carbonaceous material, release from ancient deposits of methane clathrates, and/or biological activity. To date, none of these phenomena have been found to reliably correlate with the detection of methane plumes. An additional source exists, however: meteor showers could generate martian methane via UV pyrolysis of carbon-rich infall material. We find a correlation between the dates of Mars/cometary orbit encounters and detections of methane on Mars. We hypothesize that cometary debris falls onto Mars during these interactions, depositing freshly disaggregated meteor shower material in a regional concentration. The material generates methane via UV photolysis, resulting in a localized "plume" of short-lived methane.
Modeling of MARSIS segmented booms and predictions of in-flight dynamics of the Mars Express Spacecraft
In this paper we provide an independent modeling and dynamic analysis of the MARSIS Antenna segmented booms deployed on the Mars Express Spacecraft. The Mars Express Mission is a joint NASA/ESA Cooperative project. The Mars Express Spacecraft being built by ESA will be launched in June 2003 and arrive at Mars in December 2003 to begin a four year study of the planet's atmosphere, surface, and subsurface. The Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Mapping (MARSIS), provided by NASA and managed by JPL, is a key instrument in the search for water on Mars. Our objective was to determine the antenna's dynamic interaction with the spacecraft bus (or central rigid body).
Cartographic Mapping of Mars Landing Sites: A Historical Perspective
Initial mapping of Mars began with the early Mariner 4, 6 and 7 flybys in the 1960's. Mariner 9 obtained the first global coverage of Mars in 1971. Viking Orbiters 1 and 2 added new and higher resolution global coverage. The US Geological Survey produced the first digital global cartographic map products in black and white and in color, the mosaicked digital image models (MDIMs). In 1989, the Phobos 88 mission added imaging as well as multispectral mapping of Mars in the equatorial region. The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) added to the black and white and color global coverage. The most important development for Mars cartography occurred on MGS with its global coverage of Mars using the Mars Observer Laser Altimeter (MOL A) producing precision ground control in latitude, longitude and radius. The next version of the MDIM was produced at 230 m spatial resolution using MOLA precision cartographic control. The Mars Odyssey mission THEMIS instrument has completed its global infrared mapping of Mars at 100 m spatial resolution. The Mars Express mission is completing its global coverage of Mars in stereo at 100 m spatial resolution or better. MGS, Odyssey and Mars Express continue to provide limited surface coverage at the 1 to 20 m resolution. Currently the new Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is producing images at the 10's of cm level. All of these datasets provide a rich and historic perspective of Mars covering nearly five decades and allow global cartographic map products to be produced in visual and infrared at the 100 m level with specialized cartographic maps being produced for landing sites at the meter or sub-meter spatial resolution level. This work was produced at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under contract to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NAS 7-7120.5d, within the NASA Mars Data Analysis Program and the MGS, Odyssey, Mars Express and MRO Participating Scientist Programs.
Lunar and Planetary Science XXXV: Special Session: Mars Missions
The session "Special Session: Mars Missions" contained the following reports:Initial Results from the MER Athena Science Investigation at Gusev Crater and Meridiani Planum; Geomorphology of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER-A) Landing Site from Observations by the Spirit Rover; Geology of Meridiani Planum as Inferred from Mars Exploration Rover: Observations;Preliminary Mineralogy and Geochemistry Results at the MER-A Landing Site in Gusev; A First Look at the Mineralogy and Geochemistry of the MER-B Landing Site in Meridiani Planum; Mini-TES Observations of the Gusev and Meridiani Landing Sites; Preliminary Results of the Magnetic Properties Experiments on the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity; Pancam Imaging of the Mars Exploration Rover Landing Sites in Gusev Crater and Meridiani Planum; Atmospheric Science with the Mars Exploration Rovers: Things are Looking Up; The Mars Express Mission:Initial Scientific Results from Orbit; The HRSC Experiment in Mars Orbit: First Results; The OMEGA/Mars Express First Results; and SPICAM on Mars Express: First Results and First Observations of Water Ice at South.
Biotoxicity of Mars Analog Soils: Microbial, Dispersal into Desiccated Soils Versus Emplacement in Salt or Ice Inclusions Fluids
Recent evidence from the Opportunity and Spirit rovers and the Mars Express mission suggests that the soils on Mars might be very high in biotoxic materials including sulfate salts, chlorides, and acidifying agents. Yet, very little is known about how the chemistries of Mars soils might affect the survival and growth of terrestrial microorganisms. The primary objectives of the research included: (1) prepare and characterize Mars analog soils amended with potential biotoxic levels of sulfates, chlorides, and acidifying minerals; and (2) use the simulants to conduct a series of toxicology assays to determine if terrestrial microorganisms from spacecraft can survive direct exposure to the biotoxic soils.
Lunar and Planetary Science XXXV: Missions and Instruments: Hopes and Hope Fulfilled
The titles in this section include: 1) Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera in the Extended Mission: The MOC Toolkit; 2) Mars Odyssey THEMIS-VIS Calibration; 3) Early Science Operations and Results from the ESA Mars Express Mission: Focus on Imaging and Spectral Mapping; 4) The Mars Express/NASA Project at JPL; 5) Beagle 2: Mission to Mars - Current Status; 6) The Beagle 2 Microscope; 7) Mars Environmental Chamber for Dynamic Dust Deposition and Statics Analysis; 8) Locating Targets for CRISM Based on Surface Morphology and Interpretation of THEMIS Data; 9) The Phoenix Mission to Mars; 10) First Studies of Possible Landing Sites for the Phoenix Mars Scout Mission Using the BMST; 11) The 2009 Mars Telecommunications Orbiter; 12) The Aurora Exploration Program - The ExoMars Mission; 13) Electron-induced Luminescence and X-Ray Spectrometer (ELXS) System Development; 14) Remote-Raman and Micro-Raman Studies of Solid CO2, CH4, Gas Hydrates and Ice; 15) The Compact Microimaging Spectrometer (CMIS): A New Tool for In-Situ Planetary Science; 16) Preliminary Results of a New Type of Surface Property Measurement Ideal for a Future Mars Rover Mission; 17) Electrodynamic Dust Shield for Solar Panels on Mars; 18) Sensor Web for Spatio-Temporal Monitoring of a Hydrological Environment; 19) Field Testing of an In-Situ Neutron Spectrometer for Planetary Exploration: First Results; 20) A Miniature Solid-State Spectrometer for Space Applications - Field Tests; 21) Application of Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) to Mars Polar Exploration: LIBS Analysis of Water Ice and Water Ice/Soil Mixtures; 22) LIBS Analysis of Geological Samples at Low Pressures: Application to Mars, the Moon, and Asteroids; 23) In-Situ 1-D and 2-D Mapping of Soil Core and Rock Samples Using the LIBS Long Spark; 24) Rocks Analysis at Stand Off Distance by LIBS in Martian Conditions; 25) Evaluation of a Compact Spectrograph/Detection System for a LIBS Instrument for In-Situ and Stand-Off Detection; 26) Analysis of Organic Compounds in Mars Analog Samples; 27) Report of the Organic Contamination Science Steering Group; 28) The Water-Wheel IR (WIR) - A Contact Survey Experiment for Water and Carbonates on Mars; 29) Mid-IR Fiber Optic Probe for In Situ Water Detection and Characterization; 30) Effects of Subsurface Sampling & Processing on Martian Simulant Containing Varying Quantities of Water; 31) The Subsurface Ice Probe (SIPR): A Low-Power Thermal Probe for the Martian Polar Layered Deposits; 32) Deploying Ground Penetrating Radar in Planetary Analog Sites to Evaluate Potential Instrument Capabilities on Future Mars Missions; 33) Evaluation of Rock Powdering Methods to Obtain Fine-grained Samples for CHEMIN, a Combined XRD/XRF Instrument; 34) Novel Sample-handling Approach for XRD Analysis with Minimal Sample Preparation; 35) A New Celestial Navigation Method for Mars Landers; 36) Mars Mineral Spectroscopy Web Site: A Resource for Remote Planetary Spectroscopy.
The Mars Express/NASA Project at JPL
ESA s Mars Express Mission involves international collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European space agencies with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as a junior partner. The primary objective of this mission is to search for hydrologic resources on the surface of Mars. Mars Express was launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on June 2, 2003 and arrived at Mars on December 25, 2003. Orbital science observations started in January 2004.
MAVEN - Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN Mission
NASA's MAVEN mission (to be launched in late 2013) is the first mission to Mars devoted to sampling all of the upper atmosphere neutral and plasma environments, including the well-mixed atmosphere, the exosphere, ionosphere, outer magnetosphere and near-Mars solar wind. It will fill in some measurement gaps remaining from the successful Mars Global Surveyor and the on-going Mars Express missions. The primary science objectives of MAVEN are: 1. Provide a comprehensive picture of the present state of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere of Mars; 2. Understand the processes controlling the present state; and 3. Determine how loss of volatiles to outer space in the present epoch varies with changing solar condition - EUY, solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field measurements will provide the varying solar energy inputs into the system. Knowing how these processes respond to the Sun's energy inputs in the current epoch will provide a framework for projecting atmospheric processes back in time to profile MARS' atmospheric evolution and to explore "where the water went", A description will be given of the science objectives, the instruments, and the current status of the project, emphasizing the value of having collaborations between the MAVEN project and the Mars upper atmosphere science community.
Examining Mars with SPICE
The International Mars Conference highlights the wealth of scientific data now and soon to be acquired from an international armada of Mars-bound robotic spacecraft. Underlying the planning and interpretation of these scientific observations around and upon Mars are ancillary data and associated software needed to deal with trajectories or locations, instrument pointing, timing and Mars cartographic models. The NASA planetary community has adopted the SPICE system of ancillary data standards and allied tools to fill the need for consistent, reliable access to these basic data and a near limitless range of derived parameters. After substantial rapid growth in its formative years, the SPICE system continues to evolve today to meet new needs and improve ease of use. Adaptations to handle landers and rovers were prototyped on the Mars pathfinder mission and will next be used on Mars '01-'05. Incorporation of new methods to readily handle non-inertial reference frames has vastly extended the capability and simplified many computations. A translation of the SPICE Toolkit software suite to the C language has just been announced. To further support cartographic calculations associated with Mars exploration the SPICE developers at JPL have recently been asked by NASA to work with cartographers to develop standards and allied software for storing and accessing control net and shape model data sets; these will be highly integrated with existing SPICE components. NASA specifically supports the widest possible utilization of SPICE capabilities throughout the international space science community. With NASA backing the Russian Space Agency and Russian Academy of Science adopted the SPICE standards for the Mars 96 mission. The SPICE ephemeris component will shortly become the international standard for agencies using the Deep Space Network. U.S. and European scientists hope that ESA will employ SPICE standards on the Mars Express mission. SPICE is an open set of standards, and all related specifications and software are freely distributed around the world. This poster describes the current state of SPICE system development, with special emphasis on current and planned support for Mars exploration missions.
The ESA Mars Express Exploration of Phobos and Deimos and satellite and ring searches
The ESA Mars Express Mission will have an excellent opportunity to explore Phobos, even in more detail than Viking.
Comparison of HIPWAC and Mars Express SPICAM Observations of Ozone on Mars 2006-2008 and Variation from 1993 IRHS Observations
Ozone is a tracer of photochemistry in the atmosphere of Mars and an observable used to test predictions of photochemical models. We present a comparison of retrieved ozone abundances on Mars using ground-based infrared heterodyne measurements by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Heterodyne Instrument for Planetary Wind And Composition (HIPWAC) and space-based Mars Express Spectroscopy for the Investigation of the Characteristics of the Atmosphere of Mars (SPICAM) ultraviolet measurements. Ozone retrievals from simultaneous measurements in February 2008 were very consistent (0.8 microns-atm), as were measurements made close in time (ranging from less than 1 to greater than 8 microns-atm) during this period and during opportunities in October 2006 and February 2007. The consistency of retrievals from the two different observational techniques supports combining the measurements for testing photochemistry-coupled general circulation models and for investigating variability over the long-term between spacecraft missions. Quantitative comparison with ground-based measurements by NASA'GSFC's Infrared Heterodyne Spectrometer (IRHS) in 1993 reveals 2-4 times more ozone at low latitudes than in 2008 at the same season, and such variability was not evident over the shorter period of the Mars Express mission. This variability may be due to cloud activity.
Mars' Water Vapor Mapping by the SPICAM IR Spectrometer: Five Martian Years of Observations
The SPICAM IR instrument on the Mars Express mission continuously observes the water vapor in the martian atmosphere starting from 2004 in the 1.38-micrometer spectral band. The water vapor column abundance is retrieved from nadir observations to characterize its spatial, seasonal and interannual variations. A reference set of SPICAM water vapor column abundances (zonally averaged) covering the time period from 2004 to 2013 (martian years 27-31) is available for a grid of 2 deg Ls 2 latitude, along with an average reference map of water vapor abundance combining all the martian years of Mars Express observations. Compared to the previous data retrieval by Fedorova et al. (Fedorova, A., Korablev, O., Bertaux, J.L., Rodin, A., Kiselev, A., Perrier, S. [2006]. J. Geophys. Res. 111, E09S08) the new processing algorithm includes many improvements concerning the calibration and assumed parameters. A major improvement is the account for aerosol scattering based on dust and water ice cloud optical depths measured by THEMIS/Mars Odyssey (Smith, M.D. [2009]. Icarus 202, 444-452). The account for multiple scattering by aerosol particles increases the retrieved water vapor amount by approximately 10% in polar areas during summer, and up to 60-70% for large solar zenith angles. The sensitivity of the results to aerosol properties, surface albedo, solar spectrum, and water vapor vertical distribution has also been studied. The retrieved water vapor reveals nominal annual cycle with maximum abundance of about 60-70 pr. lm for the Northern summer and approximately 20 pr. lm for the Southern summer. The annual average amount of water has been estimated to be of 10-20 pr. micrometers, in agreement with other measurements. From year to year the seasonal cycle of water vapor abundance is very stable. An observed decrease during the MY 28 global dust storm cannot be fully attributed to the masking effect of dust, and indicates a real decrease of water amount near or above the surface. No evidence of diurnal variation of column water vapor amount was found, even though the 1.38-micrometer measurements are sensitive to the few lowermost kilometers above the surface.