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The Mars Exploration Program and constituent Mars Technology Program are described. Current ongoing and future NASA-led missions are presented, including discussions of scientific accomplishments and objectives as well as technology validations accomplished and technological enablers for future missions.
The Mars Exploration Program and constituent Mars Technology Program are described. Current, ongoing and future NASA-led missions are presented, including discussions of scientific accomplishments and objectives as well as technology validations accomplished and technological enablers for future missions. The missions summarized include (in order of actual or planned launch): Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Pathfinder, 2001 Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars 'Smart' Lander, Mars Scouts, Mars Sample Return. Key technology areas hdiscussed include: Navigation, Entry, Descent and Landing, Science and Surface Operations, Orbital Transport and Sample Return Technologies.
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The Mars Exploration Program is pioneering a series of better, faster, cheaper missions to Mars over at least the next 10 years, and possibly well into the 21st century.
The U.S. Mars Exploration Program comprises at least on Discovery mission (Mars Pathfinder), and Mars Surveyor Program, plus sample return missions and other missions to prepare for possible human expeditions to Mars. The original themes of the Mars Surveyor Program (which are still the official program goals) are to understand Life, Climate and Resources on Mars, with these themes tied together by the common thread of Water. The ability to move about the Martian surface is key to the Mars Exploration Program. This paper addresses the overall Mars Exploration Program strategy, with an emphasis of the role of rovers in the program. Specifically, the need for improvements in rover performance is addressed.
In the wake of the failure of the Mars Observer mission in 1993, a long-term program of robotic exploration of Mars was established. The themes of the Mars Exploration Program are to understand life, climate, and resources on Mars, with these themes tied together by the common thread of water. The Mars Exploration Program comprises at least one Discovery mission (Mars Pathfinder), the Mars Surveyor Program, plus sample return missions and other missions to prepare possible human expiditions to Mars.
An overview of the Mars Exploration Program is presented in outline and graphic form. Mission objectives, mission strategy, operations concept, transportation element, launch vehicle considerations and program schedule are addressed.
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NASA's newly restructured Mars Exploration Program (MEP) is finally on the way to Mars with the successful April 7 launch of the 2001 Mars Odyssey Orbiter. In addition, the announcement by the Bush Administration that the exploration of Mars will be a priority within NASA's Office of Space Science further cements the first decade of the new millennium as one of the major thrusts to understand the "new" Mars. Over the course of the past year and a half, an integrated team of managers, scientists, and engineers has crafted a revamped MEP to respond to the scientific as well as management and resource challenges associated with deep space exploration of the Red Planet. This article describes the new program from the perspective of its guiding philosophies, major events, and scientific strategy. It is intended to serve as a roadmap to the next 10-15 years of Mars exploration from the NASA viewpoint. [For further details, see the Mars Exploration Program web site (URL): http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov]. The new MEP will certainly evolve in response to discoveries, to successes, and potentially to setbacks as well. However, the design of the restructured strategy is attentive to risks, and a major attempt to instill resiliency in the program has been adopted. Mars beckons, and the next decade of exploration should provide the impetus for a follow-on decade in which multiple sample returns and other major program directions are executed. Ultimately the vision to consider the first human scientific expeditions to the Red Planet will be enabled. By the end of the first decade of this program, we may know where and how to look for the elusive clues associated with a possible martian biological record, if any was every preserved, even if only as "chemical fossils.".
The scientific reasons for a Mars exploration program are reviewed, and the robotic phase of such a program is examined. The functions and requirements of the rovers, surface stations and penetrators are addressed, as are those of the imaging and communications orbiters. The navigational functions which support the aerocapture and landing vehicles are examined.
This slide presentation reviews the planning for the Mars Exploration Program. This includes information on the Mars Science Orbiter, the 2016-2018 planning teams, and updates to the Mars Exploration Analysis Group.
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The Mars Organic Detector (MOD) was recently selected for the definition phase of the HEDS '05 (originally scheduled for '03) lander instrument package for fundamental biology and in situ resource utilization. MOD is designed to detect organic compounds in rock and soil samples directly on the surface of Mars in order to assess the biological potential of the planet. In addition, a MOD Tunable Diode Laser Spectrometer (TDLS) will provide information on desorption and decomposition temperatures, as well as the release rates and quantities of water and carbon dioxide that can be liberated from regolith samples, thereby providing the parameters needed for the design of systems for the future large-scale in situ extraction of valuable consumable resources. A MOD TDLS will also measure the atmospheric water and carbon dioxide content, as well as the atmospheric carbon dioxide isotopic composition, in order to determine whether there is an isotopic offset between atmospheric and surface carbon.
The continued exploration of Mars must be an international venture, featuring close cooperation amongst those nations eager to participate in the planning, operations and data analysis phases.
The Mars Exploration Program should consider following the Discovery Program model. In the Discovery Program a team of scientists led by a PI develop the science goals of their mission, decide what payload achieves the necessary measurements most effectively, and then choose a spacecraft with the capabilities needed to carry the payload to the desired target body. The primary constraints associated with the Discovery missions are time and money. The proposer must convince reviewers that their mission has scientific merit and is feasible. Every Announcement of Opportunity has resulted in a collection of creative ideas that fit within advertised constraints. Following this model, a "Mars Discovery Program" would issue an Announcement of Opportunity for each launch opportunity with schedule constraints dictated by the launch window and fiscal constraints in accord with the program budget. All else would be left to the proposer to choose, based on the science the team wants to accomplish, consistent with the program theme of "Life, Climate and Resources". A proposer could propose a lander, an orbiter, a fleet of SCOUT vehicles or penetrators, an airplane, a balloon mission, a large rover, a small rover, etc. depending on what made the most sense for the science investigation and payload. As in the Discovery program, overall feasibility relative to cost, schedule and technology readiness would be evaluated and be part of the selection process.