Mars Science Opportunities in 2001/2003
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MSP Payload Assignment THEMIS MARIE↗
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Mars 2001-2003 Science Opportunities
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Mars Science Opportunities↗
Mars Climate: Science Opportunities and Operational Dependence for Human Explorers
Mars climatology and its influence on human exploration is presented.
McCleese, Dan↗
Mars Science Laboratory Opportunity Rover : Pyrotechnic Mechanisms Heritage and Implementation
No abstract available
spacecraft elements↗
Scout Missions and Future Exploration of the Martian Poles
NASA's Mars Exploration Program, (MEP) complemented by missions in operation by ESA and the Japanese space agency, is revolutionizing the study of Mars as a planet and potential home for life, past, present or future. Within the MEP there are a number of significant opportunities for the study of the Mars polar regions--from the ongoing Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey missions, the upcoming Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the soon-to-be-defined Mars Science Laboratory. As an internal complement to the Mars missions being developed by JPL for the MEP, Mars Scout investigations can provide substantial future opportunities to study the polar regions of Mars. These relatively small, PI-led missions provide substantial flexibility within the overall MEP, providing the capability to respond to scientific targets of opportunity in Mars science, with special-interest small missions, or to be developed to respond to instrument opportunities for missions developed by international partners.
McBride, K. S.↗
Simulating the ARES Aircraft in the Mars Environment
NASA Langley proposed the Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Survey (ARES) of Mars science mission in response to the NASA Office of Space Science 2002 Mars Scout Opportunity. The science-driven mission proposal began with trade studies and determined that a rocket powered aircraft was the best suited platform to complete the ARES science objectives. A high fidelity six degree of freedom flight simulation was required to provide credible evidence that the aircraft design fulfilled mission objectives and to support the aircraft design process by providing performance evaluations. The aircraft was initially modeled using the aero, propulsion, and flight control system components of other aircraft models. As the proposed aircraft design evolved, the borrowed components were replaced with new models. This allowed performance evaluations to be performed as the design was maturing. Basic autopilot features were also developed for the ARES aircraft model. Altitude hold and track hold modes allowed different mission scenarios to be evaluated for both science merit and aircraft performance. Platform stability and data rate requirements were identified for each of the instruments and the aircraft performance was evaluated against those requirements. The results of the simulation evaluations indicate that the ARES design and mission profiles are sound and meet the science objectives.
Kenney, P. Sean↗
The Opportunity Rover's Athena science investigation at Meridiani Planum, Mars
The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has investigated the landing site in Eagle crater and the nearby plains within Meridiani Planum. The soils consist of fine-grained basaltic sand and a surface lag of hematite-rich spherules, spherule fragments, and other granules. Wind ripples are common. Underlying the thin soil layer, and exposed within small impact craters and troughs, are flat-lying sedimentary rocks. These rocks are finely laminated, are rich in sulfur, and contain abundant sulfate salts. Small-scale cross-lamination in some locations provides evidence for deposition in flowing liquid water. We interpret the rocks to be a mixture of chemical and siliciclastic sediments formed by episodic inundation by shallow surface water, followed by evaporation, exposure, and desiccation. Hematite-rich spherules are embedded in the rock and eroding from them. We interpret these spherules to be concretions formed by postdepositional diagenesis, again involving liquid water.
Mars↗
The Challenges and Opportunities for International Cooperative Radio Science; Experience with Mars Express and Venus Express Missions
Radio Science is an opportunistic discipline in the sense that the communication link between a spacecraft and its supporting ground station can be used to probe the intervening media remotely. Radio science has recently expanded to greater, cooperative use of international assets. Mars Express and Venus Express are two such cooperative missions managed by the European Space Agency with broad international science participation supported by NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) and ESA's tracking network for deep space missions (ESTRAK). This paper provides an overview of the constraints, opportunities, and lessons learned from international cross support of radio science, and it explores techniques for potentially optimizing the resultant data sets.
MEX↗
Science exploration opportunities for manned missions to the Moon, Mars, Phobos, and an asteroid
Scientific exploration opportunities for human missions to the Moon, Phobos, Mars, and an asteroid are addressed. These planetary objects are of prime interest to scientists because they are the accessible, terresterial-like bodies most likely to be the next destinations for human missions beyond Earth orbit. Three categories of science opportunities are defined and discussed: target science, platform science, and cruise science. Target science is the study of the planetary object and its surroundings (including geological, biological, atmospheric, and fields and particle sciences) to determine the object's natural physical characteristics, planetological history, mode of origin, relation to possible extant or extinct like forms, surface environmental properties, resource potential, and suitability for human bases or outposts. Platform science takes advantage of the target body using it as a site for establishing laboratory facilities and observatories; and cruise science consists of studies conducted by the crew during the voyage to and from a target body. Generic and specific science opportunities for each target are summarized along with listings of strawman payloads, desired or required precursor information, priorities for initial scientific objectives, and candidate landing sites. An appendix details the potential use of the Moon for astronomical observatories and specialized observatories, and a bibliography compiles recent work on topics relating to human scientific exploration of the Moon, Phobos, Mars, and asteroids. It is concluded that there are a wide variety of scientific exploration opportunities that can be pursued during human missions to planetary targets but that more detailed studies and precursor unmanned missions should be carried out first.
Nash, Douglas B.↗
Investigation of Martian Aqueous Processes Using Multiple Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) Datasets
The APXS instruments flown on the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) Spirit and Opportunity and the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity were based on the same fundamental design. The calibration effort of the MSL APXS used the same reference standards analyzed in the MER calibration which ensures that data produced by all three instruments provide the same compositional results for the same sample. This cross-calibration effort is unprecedented and allows direct comparisons and contrasts of samples analyzed at Gusev Crater by Spirit, Meridiani Planum by Opportunity, and Gale Crater by Curiosity.
Yen, A. S.↗
Report of the NASA Science Definition Team for the Mars Science Orbiter (MSO)
NASA is considering that its Mars Exploration Program (MEP) will launch an orbiter to Mars in the 2013 launch opportunity. To further explore this opportunity, NASA has formed a Science Definition Team (SDT) for this orbiter mission, provisionally called the Mars Science Orbiter (MSO). Membership and leadership of the SDT are given in Appendix 1. Dr. Michael D. Smith chaired the SDT. The purpose of the SDT was to define the: 1) Scientific objectives of an MSO mission to be launched to Mars no earlier than the 2013 launch opportunity, building on the findings for Plan A [Atmospheric Signatures and Near-Surface Change] of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) Second Science Analysis Group (SAG-2); 2) Science requirements of instruments that are most likely to make high priority measurements from the MSO platform, giving due consideration to the likely mission, spacecraft and programmatic constraints. The possibilities and opportunities for international partners to provide the needed instrumentation should be considered; 3) Desired orbits and mission profile for optimal scientific return in support of the scientific objectives, and the likely practical capabilities and the potential constraints defined by the science requirements; and 4) Potential science synergies with, or support for, future missions, such as a Mars Sample Return. This shall include imaging for evaluation and certification of future landing sites. As a starting point, the SDT was charged to assume spacecraft capabilities similar to those of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The SDT was further charged to assume that MSO would be scoped to support telecommunications relay of data from, and commands to, landed assets, over a 10 Earth year period following orbit insertion. Missions supported by MSO may include planned international missions such as EXOMARS. The MSO SDT study was conducted during October - December 2007. The SDT was directed to complete its work by December 15, 2007. This rapid turn-around was required in order to allow time to prepare an Announcement of Opportunity (AO) for science investigations, to be released in early 2008.
Smith, Michael↗
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.
Gibson, Everett K., Jr.↗
JPL Mission Bibliometrics
For a number of years ongoing bibliographies of various JPL missions (AIRS, ASTER, Cassini, GRACE, Earth Science, Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit & Opportunity)) have been compiled by the JPL Library. Mission specific bibliographies are compiled by the Library and sent to mission scientists and managers in the form of regular (usually quarterly) updates. Charts showing publications by years are periodically provided to the ASTER, Cassini, and GRACE missions for supporting Senior Review/ongoing funding requests, and upon other occasions as a measure of the impact of the missions. Basically the Web of Science, Compendex, sometimes Inspec, GeoRef and Aerospace databases are searched for the mission name in the title, abstract, and assigned keywords. All get coded for journal publications that are refereed publications.
Bibliographies↗
The Science from Spirit and Opportunity
This slide presentation shows views from the Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. Included are views of the takeoff, and descent on to Mars. The science objective of these missions are to determine the water, climate, and geologic history of two sites on Mars where evidence has been preserved for past and persistent liquid water activity that may have supported biotic or pre-biotic processes. There are also shots of the Athena Science Payload with views of the instrumentation. Also presented are graphs showing Mossbauer Spectra of varions martian rocks.
Spirit↗
Synthetic (Hydrothermal) Hematite-Rich Mars-Analog Spherules from Acid-Sulfate Brines: Implications for Formation and Diagenesis of Hematite Spherules in Outcrops at Meridiani Planum, Mars
The Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) onboard the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) orbiter discovered a large area at Meridiani Planum (MP) covered with the Fe-oxide hematite (alpha-Fe2O3) [1,2]. This discovery and favorable landing site characteristics led to selection of MP as the landing site for the Opportunity Mars Exploration Rover (MER) [3]. The Athena science payload onboard the Opportunity rover identified hematite-rich spherules (mean spherule diameter approx.4.2+/-0.8 mm) embedded in S-rich outcrop rock and also as lag deposits of whole and broken spherules [4,5,6,7,8,9]. Although the chemical and mineralogical compositions of spherules are not fully constrained, Moessbauer spectrometer (MB) Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES) and chemical analyses from the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) are consistent with a hematite mineralogical composition and an oxide bulk chemical composition consisting of Fe2O3. MGS-TES, also provides an important constraint that emission from the hematite-rich spherules is dominated by emission along the crystallographic c-axis [1,2,10,11]. The formation of hematite-rich spherules with similar chemical, mineralogical, morphological, and crystallographic properties to the MP spherules is rare on Earth, to date, only two natural analogs have been proposed; one from Utah (Navaho Concretions) and the other from Mauna Kea, Hawaii [12,13]. In this study, we synthesized in the laboratory hematite-rich spherules using conditions that may have existed on Early Mars [14] and compared their properties to those for MP hematite spherules of Mars and the analog spherules from Utah and Mauna Kea in order to assess their relative merit as MP hematite spherule analogs. Such comparisons yield clues to the formation pathway for MP spherules.
Golden, D. C.↗
Hydrothermal Synthesis of Hematite-Rich Spherules: Implications for Diagenesis and Hematite Spherule Formation in Outcrops at Meridiani Planum, Mars
The Athena science payload onboard the Opportunity rover identified hematite-rich spherules (mean diameter of 4.2 +/- 0.8 mm) embedded in outcrops and occurring as lag deposits at Meridiani Planum. They have formed as diagenetic concretions from the rapid breakdown of pre-existing jarosite and other iron sulfates when chemically distinct groundwater passed through the sediments. Diagenetic, Fe-cemented concretions found in the Jurassic Navajo Formation, Utah and hematite-rich spherules found within sulfate-rich volcanic breccia on Mauna Kea volcano, Hawaii are possible terrestrial analogues for Meridiani spherules. The Navajo Formation concretions form in porous quartz arenite from the dissolution of iron oxides by reducing fluids and subsequent Fe precipitation to form spherical Fe- and Si-rich concretions. The Mauna Kea spherules form by hydrothermal, acid-sulfate alteration of basaltic tephra. The formation of hematite-rich spherules with similar chemical, mineralogical, and morphological properties to the Meridiani spherules is rare on Earth, so little is known about their formation conditions. In this study, we have synthesized in the laboratory hematite-rich spherules that are analogous in nearly all respects to the Meridiani spherules.
Golden, D. C.↗
Task Adaptive Walking Robots for Mars Surface Exploration
There are exciting opportunities for robot science that lie beyond the reach of current manipulators, rovers, balloons, penetrators, etc. Examples include mobile explorations of the densely cratered Mars highlands, of asteroids, and of moons. These sites are believed to be rich in geologic history and mineralogical detail, but are difficult to robotically access and sample. The surface terrains are rough and changeable, with variable porosity and dust layering; and the small bodies present further challenges of low-temperature, micro-gravity environments. Even the more benign areas of Mars are highly variegated in character (>VL2 rock densities), presenting significant risk to conventional rovers. The development of compact walking robots would have applications to the current mission set for Mars surface exploration, as well as enabling future Mars Outpost missions, asteroid rendezvous missions for the Solar System Exploration Program (SSE) and the mechanical assembly/inspection of large space platforms for the Human Exploration and Development of Spaces (HEDS).
Huntsberger, Terry↗
Valles Marineris, Mars: An optimum science-sample site
The Valles Marineris troughs offer an opportunity to sample rocks that reflect various ages and compositions, giving insight into important processes on Mars. Most of the samples would be located within reasonable proximity and could be easily reached by rovers or balloons. Although landing a spacecraft on the floor of the Valles Marineris may be too dangerous for the first sample-return mission to Mars, the scientific rewards would be so great that such a landing should be considered for later flights.
Lucchitta, B. K.↗