NASA Selects Ten Possible Mission Concepts for Mars

Last week, NASA's Mars Exploration Program in the Office of Space Science announced ten finalists groups who have developed possible mission concepts for the 2007 Mars Scout mission. Each of the groups will receive $150,000 worth of funding to future study their concepts over the next six months.

The selected studies involve how to return samples of martian atmospheric dust and gas, networks of small landers, orbiting constellations of small craft and a rover that would attempt to establish absolute surface ages of rocks and soils.

"These Scout concepts embody the spirit I first thought about more than one year ago, and will enable us to eplore the diversity of Mars in new ways," said Dr. Ed Weiler, associate administrator for space science. The winning concepts were chosen based on their overall scientific merit and potential for implementation under a total mission cost cap of $300 million.

The selected mission concepts and principal investigators were:

* Sample Collection for Investigation of Mars (Prof. Laure Leshin, Arizona State University): bring samples of atmospheric dust and gas back using aerogen on a free-return trajectory.

* KittyHawk (Prof. Wendy Calvin, University of Nevada-Reno): Three gliders would explore walls of Valles Marineris that are not accessible by other probes.

* Urey (Dr. Jeff Plescia, U.S. Geological Survey): Surface rover would date geological materials.

* Mars Atmospheric Constellation Observator (Prof. Robert Kursinski, University of Arizona): Network of micro-satellites would configure 3-D structure of Mars' atmosphere.

* Artemis (Prof. David Paige, University of California, Los Angeles): Three small landers and micro-rovers would explore surface and shallow subsurface for water, organic material and climate study.

* Mars Environmental Observer (Dr. M. Janssen, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory): Orbiter would explore the role of water, dust, ice and other material on Mars' hydrological cycle.

* Pascal (Dr. Rob Haberle, NASA's Ames Research Center): Network of 24 weather stations on martian surface would study weather for two years.

* Mars Scout Radar (Dr. Bruce Campbell, Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum): Orbiter wouold use Synthetic Aperture Radar imaging to map the surface geomorphology and very shallow subsurface to detect water channels.

* The Naiades (Dr. Bob Grimm, Blackhawk GeoServices): Four landers will explore for subsurface liquid water using low-frequency sounding methods.

* CryoScout (Dr. Frank Carsey, JPL): Probe martian polar ice caps for organic compounds.

"These ten mission concepts provide revolutionary new vantage points and tools for exploring the new Mars that has emerged from the observations of the Mars Global Surveyor," said Dr. Jim Garvin, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Program.

Go To Page: 1

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic