Mars Archives

January 20, 2010December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

HiRISE Makes Your Wishes Comes True

Possible future landing site on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

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The HiRISE science team is now taking requests! A new web tool called HiWish is now available for the high-resolution camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter which allows the public to suggest a location on Mars where the HiRISE instrument should take an image. If you don’t have a particular location, you can use the HiWish site to browse around the planet, examine the locations of other data sets, and find a place that should be imaged. The team will then put into their targeting database, and your suggestion may get selected as an upcoming observation. Furthermore, the HiWish site allows you to track your suggestions and be notified when one of your suggestions gets taken.

Maybe you could even find a really unusual feature on Mars, such as this race-track-like feature that may one day be a landing site for a future mission to the Red Planet. HiRISE images will help determine if this spot is sufficiently safe for landing, such as not too many boulders, steep slopes, or too many high speed MASCAR races — (that’s the Mars Association for Super Cool Aerodynamical Racing). If it is safe, it may be considered for the 2011 Mars Science Laboratory or the 2018 rovers that ESA and NASA are working on for a join mission.

The above image is actually a huge shield volcano in the northeast part of Syrtis Major, and near the Northwest rim of Isidis Planitia, a giant impact basin.

So, go create an account at HiWish and get wishing!

January 17, 2010April 13, 2022 by Ken Kremer

If Phoenix Arises, Science could flow quickly

Caption: This mosaic assembled from Phoenix images shows the spacecraft’s three landing legs and patches of water ice exposed by the landing thrusters. Splotches of Martian material on the landing leg strut at left could be liquid saline-water. Larger version on Spaceflightnow.com .Credit: Kenneth Kremer, Marco Di Lorenzo, NASA/JPL/UA/Max Planck Institute and Spaceflightnow.com.

If the miraculous happens and contact is unexpectedly re-established with NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander, science could flow almost instantly if the ships vital operating systems are healthy. Indeed a science plan could be swiftly put in place after determining the condition of the lander, says Doug McCuiston, director of Mars Exploration at NASA Headquarters. McCuiston explained to me in an interview that the initial science would be “a surface change and atmospheric imaging campaign that could begin nearly immediately. In that instance, if the cameras are operable it is easy to begin an imaging campaign with real-time planning”.

A robust and wide ranging science agenda far beyond pictures could theoretically be implemented if Phoenix does amazingly survive and the pre-programmed Lazarus mode kicks in and she re-awakens with a functional arm. The goal would be to restart the assessment of habitability in the martian arctic where humanity in the form of a robotic surrogate first touched water beyond earth.

The two principal science instruments, TEGA and MECA, each have unexploited analysis cells which could potentially be loaded with fresh martian soil samples and checked for signatures of water, organics and nutrients. Peter Smith, Phoenix Principal Investigator from the University of Arizona, confirmed to me that the single unopened TEGA oven could be used, if still intact. The one remaining MECA wet chemistry cell could also potentially be utilized. Michael Hecht, lead scientist for MECA at JPL, told me that “in theory” fresh soil samples could be dropped as well onto the two microscope slides that were initially used for atmospheric air-fall samples rather than dirt droppings. High powered examinations with both the optical and atomic force microscopes might also resume. High resolution panoramic pictures would be taken by the stereo imaging system. Close up shots could be snapped by the robotic arm camera. See my Phoenix mosaics here in prepared in collaboration with Marco Di Lorenzo.

Caption: Farewell view of TEGA science instrument to Sol 142. Scoop delivers Martian dirt for compositional analysis. Two MECA cells at top left. TECP probe at top right. Mosaic of images in false color stitched from robotic arm camera images. Credit: Marco Di Lorenzo, Ken Kremer, NASA/JPL/UA/Max Planck Institute and Spaceflight magazine.

In fact, no one on the team really expects Phoenix to revive following the exceedingly harsh winter weather she has had to endure since falling silent more than one year ago on November 2, 2008. “Keep in mind, we think the chances are very low that it survived [martian] winter,” McCuiston emphasized to me. “NASA hardware has never been exposed to this type of environment on Mars”.

Phoenix landed on the northern plains of the martian artic on May 25, 2008 in a polar permafrost region that proved to be within arms reach of a vast, rock hard layer of frozen water ice. She completed 5 months of intense science, accomplishing break though discoveries at a high northern latitude. She then perished exactly as foreseen when the power output from the solar arrays plunged due to the onset of harsh seasonal weather causing dimming sunlight and bitterly frigid temperatures. At that point there were 17 hours of sunlight per sol (martian day) which are 24.7 hours in duration. Phoenix exceeded her targeted lifetime by over 2 months.

Caption: Mosaic of Phoenix lander footpad and blocks of water ice dubbed “Snow Queen” cleared of topsoil by descent rockets as spacecraft touched down near the frigid Martian North Pole on May 25, 2008. False-color mosaic also shows a spring to right of footpad, harmlessly lost during landing. Selected for the cover of 9 June 2008 issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine. See also APOD 12 June 2008. Credit: Kenneth Kremer, Marco Di Lorenzo, NASA/JPL/UA/Max Planck Institute/Aviation Week & Space Technology

And then the environmental situation turned even more dire. Temperatures plunged steeply to below minus 180 C, there was no sunlight at all for 3 months starting in April 2009 and sheets of carbon dioxide ice built up to perhaps a foot in depth and may have encased the lander at least partially. As a result the electronic wiring likely passed through a “glass transition state” and became brittle and the twin solar arrays might have snapped off.

Caption: Holy Cow water ice layer blasted free by Phoenix descent engines visible at top. Mosaic of images in false color stitched from robotic arm camera images. Credit: Marco Di Lorenzo, Kenneth Kremer, NASA/JPL/UA/Max Planck Institute and Spaceflight magazine. See also APOD 12 Nov 2008.

I asked Doug about NASA’s go forward plan in the unlikely event that Phoenix arises, “It would probably take a few days at minimum to determine what Phoenix status was, and what may or may not be done with it. Viable plans cannot be generated until the condition of the lander is known, if we hear from it. So producing a plan [prior to contact] would be guesswork at best”. As for how quickly any positive announcement would be made ? McCuiston told me that, “We will go through our regular public affairs process when the project tells us contact was made—that would be very quick, probably the same day”.

Of course to accomplish anything meaningful requires money and people. So we next discussed the status of funding available from NASA and staffing from scientists. “The Mars Program held a small amount of contingency start-up funding. Additional funding would be determined based on the condition of the instruments, and the extent and value of the science that could be done”, McCuiston explained. “The science team can be rallied quickly by the PI (Principal Investigator) since all are watching progress”, he added.

Peter Smith of the University of Arizona is the scientific Principal Investigator for the Phoenix mission and the same teams spread across many institutions in the US, Canada and several countries in Europe would still be involved.

How many scientists can be supported and for how long? “That all depends on the condition of the lander and the instruments”, McCuiston said. Phoenix was an international space exploration mission led by the US and the University of Arizona with project management at JPL and in collaboration with partners from Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland and Great Britain.

NASA has two spacecraft currently circling Mars in near polar orbit which will be actively searching for Phoenix, named Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). “We actually listen for it, not try to contact it because of the operational mode it will come up in (if it does at all)”, explained McCuiston. “Odyssey is slated to be the prime communications spacecraft”. The listening campaign with Odyssey begins on January 18 with 10+ overflights per day for three consecutive days, each of which has about a 10 minute window of opportunity, and will continue into February and March. “MRO will search on an as-available basis, depending on what else it’s doing, since its primary role is MSL landing site work. Mars Express [from ESA] is not involved”.

MRO does play another very important informational role. “They will try to image Phoenix about every 2 weeks”, McCuiston said. No one I contacted was willing to hazard a guess yet as to whether the two power producing solar arrays are still intact. “So far the MRO images have been very poor due to fog and ice. It probably won’t be very clear until February or later”.

So the odds against contact are absolutely daunting. Still we can hope and dream that Phoenix may rise one last time from the ashes and phone home to resume her glorious achievements. If Phoenix is intact, she could potentially remain active as a research outpost for a much longer time period than the first round of 5 months since she is now at an earlier point in the martian year with sunlight increasing each sol. Phoenix final move was to poke the pitch fork like TECP probe into the martian dirt before shutting down.

Many Mars scientists believe that the arctic region may be the best place to look for evidence of current life on Mars. Indeed many Phoenix scientists have concluded that the Phoenix landing site is the “most habitable” of any thus far visited by human robotic explorers.

Stay tuned and listen for Phoenix

Earlier Mars article by Ken Kremer:

Mars 2016 Methane Orbiter: Searching for Signs of Life

Phoenix mosaics by Ken Kremer and Marco Di Lorenzo at Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD)

Phoenix and the Holy Cow APOD 12 Nov 2008

Phoenix and the Snow Queen APOD 12 Jun 2008

Phoenix mosaics by Ken Kremer and Marco Di Lorenzo at Spaceflightnow.com

January 16, 2010December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Stunning New Views From HiRISE; Plus Big Announcement?

Caption: Dune symmetry on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

It is so wonderful to see the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter back in action, especially our favorite camera, the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE. The HiRISE team released some of their latest images this week, and they are particularly stunning, including this one of symmetrical dunes in a small crater in Noachis Terra, west of the giant Hellas impact basin. Alfred McEwan, from the HiRISE team and the University of Arizona says the dunes here are linear, and are thought to be created due to shifting wind directions. In places, each dune is remarkably similar to adjacent dunes. The linear dune fields on Mars are similar to the ones seen on Titan, although not quite as large. The debris between the dunes are large boulders.

More images below, but on another note, HiRISE Twitter notes there will be a “big announcement” on Wednesday, January 20. A major discovery? Mission extension? Website redesign? Stay tuned.

This jaw-dropping beauty accompanied a press release announcing that 21 articles from HiRISE made up the entire contents of a special January issue of the journal Icarus . The papers analyzed Martian landforms shaped by winds, water, lava flow, seasonal icing and more.

This view shows color variations in bright layered deposits on a plateau near Juventae Chasma in the Valles Marineris region of Mars.

Contortions on the floor of Hellas Basin. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

This almost looks like etchings on Mars’ surface, and they are very strange landforms indeed. McEwan notes that materials appear to have flowed in a viscous manner, like ice, here on the floor of Hellas Basin. Viscous flow features are common over the middle latitudes of Mars, but those in Hellas are especially unique, for unknown reasons.

Frost covered dunes. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

This is a beautiful shot of frost covered dunes inside a crater. The HiRISE team says that on the floor of this crater where there are no dunes, the ice forms an uninterrupted layer. On the dunes however, dark streaks form as surface material from below the ice is mobilized and deposited on top of the ice. In some cases this mobile material probably slides down the steep face of the dune, while in other cases it may be literally blown out in a process of gas release similar to removing a cork from a champagne bottle.

Recent impact crater. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

This impact crater could be relatively new, as it does not appear in images taken by the Viking Orbiters in 1976. McEwan said the HiRISE team suspects that the crater is more than several decades old, however, “because at full resolution we see a textured surface that is common in dust-mantled regions of Mars, but absent in the youngest craters.” While it could have been created recently, the other explanation is that there may have been more dust on the surface in 1976 or the air may have been hazy, obscuring the crater.

Click on each of the images for access to the higher resolution versions, or go directly to the HiRISE website.

January 11, 2010December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Odyssey to Start Listening for Phoenix Lander

Caption: The Phoenix Mars Lander, its backshell and its heatshield are visible within this enhanced-color image of the Phoenix landing site taken on Jan. 6, 2010 by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Listen up, all you Phoenix lander fans! Beginning Jan. 18, the Mars Odyssey orbiter will start listening for any signs of life from Phoenix, which has been sitting silently on the frozen arctic region of Mars since its last communication in November 2008. The Phoenix team says hearing any radio transmission from the lander is high improbably, but possible. Never say never….

“We do not expect Phoenix to have survived, and therefore do not expect to hear from it. However, if Phoenix is transmitting, Odyssey will hear it,” said Chad Edwards, chief telecommunications engineer for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. “We will perform a sufficient number of Odyssey contact attempts that if we don’t detect a transmission from Phoenix, we can have a high degree of confidence that the lander is not active.”

Odyssey will pass over the Phoenix landing site approximately 10 times each day during three consecutive days of listening this month and two longer listening campaigns in February and March. The listening attempts will continue until after the sun is above the horizon for the full 24.7 hours of the Martian day at the lander’s high-latitude site. During the later attempts in February or March, Odyssey will transmit radio signals that could potentially be heard by Phoenix, as well as passively listening.

Phoenix close up from July 2009. Annotated by Phil Stooke.

In the extremely unlikely case that Phoenix survived the winter, it is expected to follow instructions programmed on its computer. If systems still operate, once its solar panels generate enough electricity to establish a positive energy balance, the lander would periodically try to communicate with any available Mars relay orbiters in an attempt to reestablish contact with Earth. During each communications attempt, the lander would alternately use each of its two radios and each of its two antennas.

If Odyssey does hear from Phoenix, the orbiter will attempt to lock onto the signal and gain information about the lander’s status. The initial task would be to determine what capabilities Phoenix retains, information that NASA would consider in decisions about any further steps.

Phoenix landed in May, 2008 and worked for about five months before succumbing to the cold weather. Since then, Phoenix’s landing site has gone through autumn, winter and part of spring. The lander’s hardware was not designed to survive the temperature extremes and ice-coating load of an arctic Martian winter.

But who knows; our Mars spacecraft seemingly have a tendency to surprise us…

Source: JPL

January 7, 2010December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Opportunity’s Vacation at Marquette Island

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Caption: Opportunity leaves a mark on the Marquette Island rock on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL/U of AZ, colorization by Stuart Atkinson

The Opportunity Mars rover has been sitting by a rock called Marquette Island since early November 2009. The stay has given the rover a bit of a respite from the “pedal to the metal” driving regimen in its attempt to get to faraway Endeavour Crater. But Oppy hasn’t been just soaking in the rays, or kicking back doing nothing. She’s been conducting a thorough examination of the rock, and on Sol 2110 (Dec. 24, 2009), Oppy’s Rock Abrasion Tool dug in and left a mark on Marquette Island, a 1.5 millimeters (0.06 inch) hole. Then subsequent observations of the hole were made by the microscopic imager, to create a close-up mosaic of the innards of the rock, and the Mössbauer spectrometer was positioned on a different rock target for a long integration. Stu Atkinson created this colorized version of Oppy’s latest look at Marquette. After the rover hits the dusty trail again, will humans ever see Marquette Island again?

Stu has a few thoughts on that: “In a hundred years this rock will be on display in the Museum of Mars – just down the hall from the “MER Gallery” where Spirit and Oppy are displayed in all their restored glory,” Stu told me, “and there’ll be an attendant on duty beside it all the time, to stop tall, pale-skinned martian kids on school trips from leaning over the barrier and poking their dirty, sticky fingers into the hole Oppy ratted in it.”

Ah, yes! I’ve always loved Stu’s optimism! Check out more of his thoughts on his blog, Cumbrian Sky.

But back to the here an now, the plan ahead for Oppy is to collect an alpha particle X-ray spectrometer (APXS) spectrum and a MB spectrum from the RAT hole, before resuming the drive toward Endeavour crater. Obviously, the science team must find Marquette Island quite interesting to spend so much time there, and it will be interesting to hear the results of the observations.

As of Sol 2110 (Dec. 24, 2009), Opportunity’s solar-array energy production was 315 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (tau) of 0.491 and a dust factor of 0.509. Total odometry was 18,927.56 meters (11.76 miles).

Source: Mars Rover website

January 5, 2010December 24, 2015 by Tammy Plotner

Welcome Back, Mars…

Although there has been plenty of moonlight to go around and frigid temperatures in many parts of the world, that’s not going to stop what’s happening in the sky. Not only is Mars back on the observing scene, but it’s also getting close enough that details are becoming more and more clear. Would a little frost have stopped Percival Lowell? Darn right it wouldn’t…. And it hasn’t stopped John Chumack either.

“Despite the brutally cold weather last night, I decided to brave it for a couple of hours in my back yard to capture Mars.” said John, “Mars is looking pretty nice and growing fast as it get closest and brightest at the end of this month. Currently it is 97% lit. This is my first attempt this opposition with a DMK firewire camera and 10″ Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope.”

Although John claims “poor seeing”, using a camera helps to even the odds and his image reveals some outstanding details such as the North Polar Ice Cap (top), Acidalia Planitia (top center), Terra Meridiana (lower right), and Valles Marineris (lower left). For sharp-eyed observers, you can even spot some bright fluffy clouds forming on the far left limb and a small hint of a Southern Polar Cap, too. “Mars is only 12.87 arc seconds across” says Chumack, “Still small and a bit of a challenge to get details in less than good seeing.”

So why encourage you to start your observations of Mars when it’s difficult? Because not everyone everywhere is enjoying winter’s grip and the more you practice, the better you can train your eye to catch fine details. When a planetary observer or photographer mentions “poor seeing” conditions, it doesn’t necessarily mean clouds as much as it means an unstable atmosphere which causes the view to swim, or be difficult to bring into focus. You may find that a hazy night offers great stability, while a very clear one doesn’t! It’s all in chance, and you won’t know what your chances are unless you take them. Right now Mars is well positioned in Leo and an easy catch for even those who are just beginning in astronomy.

To help you understand what you are seeing, you’ll need to know which side of Mars you’re looking at at any given time. When it comes to map generation, no one does it finer than Sky & Telescope Magazine and their Mars Profiler page which will help you pinpoint what’s visible at the time and date you’re viewing. While at first you may only see a small orange dot with a few dark markings, the key is not to give up… You don’t need a camera to see details, only patience. It may take a few seconds, or several minutes before a moment of clarity and stability arrives, but when it does you will pick up a detail that you didn’t notice at first glance. It may be a polar cap, or dark wedge of a surface feature… But they will appear. A great way to help train your eyes to catch these types of details is to sketch what you are seeing. Don’t worry! No one will be around to grade your drawings. By focusing your attention and recording it on paper, you’ll soon find that you’re observing a lot more than you ever thought you could!

Move over, Percival… Mars is back and so are we.

Many thanks to Sky & Telescope Magazine and especially to John Chumack for braving the Ohio deep freeze and providing us all with some inspiration!

January 5, 2010December 24, 2015 by Ryan Anderson

New Images Suggest More Recent Lakes on Mars

Image of a channel between putative lakes from the Context Camera (CTX) onboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

Modern Mars is frigid and dry, but new evidence suggests that in some locations on the equator there may have been lakes as recently as 3 billion years ago.

Researchers from Imperial College London and University College London studied images from the context camera (CTX) on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) of several flat-floored depressions in Ares Vallis, near the martian equator.

Previously these depressions were thought to be due to the collapse of the surface as ground ice sublimated directly to gas, but CTX images reveal small channels connecting the depressions, suggesting that water flowed between them. Similar features can be found in “thermokarst” landscapes in Alaska and elsewhere, where permafrost is melting to create lakes and streams.

To determine the age of the features, the scientists counted more than 35,000 craters in the area. Assuming that the current surface was continuously exposed to impacts from space since it was emplaced, the density of craters points to an age of roughly three billion years.

Previously, it was thought that Mars dried up between 4 and 3.8 billion years ago, but if the cratering age from this study is correct, these new results suggest at least brief periods later in martian history when lakes could exist.

The lead author, Dr Nicholas Warner, from the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial College London, said: “Most of the research on Mars has focused on its early history and the recent past. Scientists had largely overlooked the Hesperian Epoch as it was thought that Mars was then a frozen wasteland. Excitingly, our study now shows that this middle period in Mars’ history was much more dynamic than we previously thought.”

It is not clear how long-lived the lakes were, but Warner and colleagues suggest that they may have served as oases for life in an otherwise inhospitable world. They also suggest that these lakes would be an interesting landing site for future robotic missions.

What’s the next step? The researchers plan to study other equatorial areas, including the mouth of Ares Vallis and Chryse Planitia to see how widespread the putative lakes were.

December 31, 2009April 26, 2016 by Nancy Atkinson

New Year’s Resolution: Find the Mars Polar Lander

Could the Mars Polar Lander's remains be hidden somewhere in this HiRISE image?

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Finding hidden treasure would be a great way to start the new year, don’t you think? And somewhere in this patterned landscape the remains of a missing spacecraft could be hidden, just waiting to be found. The Mars Polar Lander arrived at the Red Planet 10 years ago in December of 1999, but just before the lander entered the Martian atmosphere, MPL went silent. An immediate search began for the remains of the MPL using images from Mars Global Surveyor, and now the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is continuing the search with high resolution images of the area in which MPL is most likely to have landed. The image here is another image in a series of images from HiRISE to look for MPL.

Investigations propose the most likely cause of the mission failure is that the spacecraft’s computers misinterpreted the release of the lander’s legs in preparation for descent as touch-down on the Martian surface, causing descent engines to shut off when the lander was still 40 meters (130 feet) above ground. However, no one knows for sure.

Find higher resolution images of this region here. See our previous articles about finding MPL — with additional images — here, and here.

See this page from the HiRISE site for a links to all the images. On this page, you’ll find an overview of the Mars Polar Lander, its disappearance, the search to find it, and why they want to find it. Emily also has a lengthy post with tips and instructions on how to search for particular objects in the HiRISE images. If you think you have found something of interest, post a comment on this page of the HiRISE Blog, or use this form to contact the HiRISE team. The UnmannedSpaceflight website has a thread discussing the search (serious searchers only).

Good luck!

December 31, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Will the Spirit Rover Survive 2010?

Will Spirit have a happy 2010? Let's hope so! Image created by Stu Atkinson.

In just a few days, the Spirit rover will celebrate six incredible years on Mars. But JPL put out a press release today, as well as the video above, saying the outlook for Spirit’s survival is not good. Being stuck in a sand trap with wheels that aren’t working well are challenges to Spirit’s mobility that could prevent the rover team from using a key survival strategy — positioning the rover’s solar panels to tilt toward the sun to collect power for heat to survive the severe Martian winter. “The highest priority for this mission right now is to stay mobile, if that’s possible,” said Steve Squyres, principal investigator for the rovers.

I’m still holding out hope, however, that the rover team will work another miracle, and that 2010 will be another happy year for Spirit on Mars — see the image below created by Stu Atkinson.

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But if mobility is not possible, the next priority is survival. To to that, the rover team will attempt to improve the rover’s tilt, while Spirit is able to generate enough electricity to turn its wheels. Spirit is in the southern hemisphere of Mars, where it is autumn, and the amount of daily sunshine available for the solar-powered rover is declining. This could result in ceasing extraction activities as early as January, depending on the amount of remaining power. Spirit’s tilt, nearly five degrees toward the south, is unfavorable because the winter sun crosses low in the northern sky.

Unless the tilt can be improved or luck with winds affects the gradual buildup of dust on the solar panels, the amount of sunshine available will continue to decline until May 2010. During May, or perhaps earlier, Spirit may not have enough power to remain in operation.

“At the current rate of dust accumulation, solar arrays at zero tilt would provide barely enough energy to run the survival heaters through the Mars winter solstice,” said Jennifer Herman, a rover power engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

The team is evaluating strategies for improving the tilt even if Spirit cannot escape the sand trap, such as trying to dig in deeper with the wheels on the north side. In February, NASA will assess Mars missions, including Spirit, for their potential science versus costs to determine how to distribute limited resources. Meanwhile, the team is planning additional research about what a stationary Spirit could accomplish as power wanes.

“Spirit could continue significant research right where it is,” said Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis, deputy principal investigator for the rovers. “We can study the interior of Mars, monitor the weather and continue examining the interesting deposits uncovered by Spirit’s wheels.”

A study of the planet’s interior would use radio transmissions to measure wobble of the planet’s axis of rotation, which is not feasible with a mobile rover. That experiment and others might provide more and different findings from a mission that has already far exceeded expectations.

Source: JPL

December 22, 2009December 24, 2015 by Ken Kremer

Mars 2016 Methane Orbiter: Searching for Signs of Life

Elements of the ESA-NASA ExoMars program 2016-2018. Credit: ESA

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The new joint Mars exploration program of NASA and ESA is quickly pushing forward to implement an agreed upon framework to construct an ambitious new generation of red planet orbiters and landers starting with the 2016 and 2018 launch windows.

The European-led ExoMars Trace Gas Mission Orbiter (TGM) has been selected as the first spacecraft of the joint initiative and is set to launch in January 2016 aboard a NASA supplied Atlas 5 rocket for a 9 month cruise to Mars. The purpose is to study trace gases in the martian atmosphere, in particular the sources and concentration of methane which has significant biological implications. Variable amounts of methane have been detected by a martian orbiter and ground based telescopes on earth. The orbiter will likely be accompanied by a small static lander provided by ESA and dubbed the Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator Module (EDM).

The NASA Mars Program is shifting its science strategy to coincide with the new joint venture with ESA and also to build upon recent discoveries from the current international fleet of martian orbiters and surface explorers Spirit, Opportunity and Phoenix (see my earlier mars mosaics). Doug McCuiston, NASA’s director of Mars Exploration at NASA HQ told me in an interview that, “NASA is progressing quickly from ‘Follow the Water’ through assessing habitability and on to a theme of ‘Seeking the Signs of Life’. Looking directly for life is probably a needle in the haystack, but the signatures of past or present life may be more wide spread through organics, methane sources, etc”.

NASA and ESA will issue an “Announcement of Opportunity for the orbiter in January 2010” soliciting proposals for a suite of science instruments according to McCuiston. “The science instruments will be competitively selected. They are open to participation by US scientists who can also serve as the Principal Investigators (PI’s)”. Proposals are due in 3 months and will be jointly evaluated by NASA and ESA. Instrument selections are targeted for announcement in July 2010 and the entire cost of the NASA funded instruments is cost capped at $100 million.

Mars Trace Gas Mission orbiter slated for 2016 launch is the first spacecraft in the new ESA & NASA Mars Exploration Joint Initiative. Credit: NASA ESA

“The 2016 mission must still be formally approved by NASA after a Preliminary Design Review, which will occur either in late 2010 or early 2011. Funding until then is covered in the Mars Program’s Next Decade wedge, where all new-start missions reside until approved, or not, by the Agency”, McCuiston told me. ESA’s Council of Ministers just gave the “green light” and formally approved an initial budget of 850 million euros ($1.2 Billion) to start implementing their ExoMars program for the 2016 and 2018 missions on 17 December at ESA Headquarters in Paris, France. Another 150 million euros will be requested within two years to complete the funding requirement for both missions.

ESA has had to repeatedly delay its own ExoMars spacecraft program since it was announced several years ago due to growing complexity, insufficient budgets and technical challenges resulting in a de-scoping of the science objectives and a reduction in weight of the landed science payload. The ExoMars rover was originally scheduled to launch in 2009 and is now set for 2018 as part of the new architecture.

The Trace Gas orbiter combines elements of ESA’s earlier proposed ExoMars orbiter and NASA’s proposed Mars Science Orbiter. As currently envisioned the spacecraft will have a mass of about 1100 kg and carry a roughly 115 kg science payload, the minimum deemed necessary to accomplish its goals. The instruments must be highly sensitive in order to be capable of detecting the identity and extremely low concentration of atmospheric trace gases, characterizing the spatial and temporal variation of methane and other important species, locating the source origin of the trace gases and determining if they are caused by biologic or geologic processes. Current photochemical models cannot explain the presence of methane in the martain atmosphere nor its rapid appearance and destruction in space, time or quantity.

An Atlas rocket similar to this vehicle I observed at Cape Canaveral Pad 41 is projected to launch the 2016 Mars orbiter. Credit: Ken Kremer

Among the instruments planned are a trace gas detector and mapper, a thermal infrared imager and both a wide angle camera and a high resolution stereo color camera (1 – 2 meter resolution). “All the data will be jointly shared and will comply with NASA’s policies on fully open access and posting into the Planetary Data System”, said McCuiston.
Another key objective of the orbiter will be to establish a data relay capability for all surface missions up to 2022, starting with 2016 lander and two rovers slotted for 2018. This timeframe could potentially coincide with Mars Sample Return missions, a long sought goal of many scientists.

If the budget allows, ESA plans to piggyback a small companion lander (EDM) which would test critical technologies for future missions. McCuiston informed me that, “The objective of this ESA Technology Demonstrator is validating the ability to land moderate payloads, so the landing site selection will not be science-driven. So expect something like Meridiani or Gusev—large, flat and safe. NASA will assist ESA engineering as requested, and within ITAR constraints.” EDM will use parachutes, radar and clusters of pulsing liquid propulsion thrusters to land.

“ESA plans a competitive call for instruments on their 3-4 kg payload”, McCuiston explained. “The Announcement of Opportunity will be open to US proposers as well so there may be some US PI’s. ESA wants a camera to ‘prove’ they got to the ground. Otherwise there is no significant role planned for NASA in the EDM”.

The lander would likely function as a weather station and be relatively short lived, perhaps 8 Sols or martian days, depending on the capacity of the batteries. ESA is not including a long term power source, such as from solar arrays, so the surface science will thus be limited in duration.

The orbiter and lander would separate upon arrival at Mars. The orbiter will use a series of aerobraking maneuvers to eventually settle into a 400 km high circular science orbit inclined at about 74 degrees.

The joint Mars architecture was formally agreed upon last summer at a bilateral meeting between Ed Weiler (NASA) and David Southwood (ESA) in Plymouth, UK. Weiler is NASA’s Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate and Southwood is ESA’s Director of Science and Robotic Exploration. They signed an agreement creating the Mars Exploration Joint Initiative (MEJI) which essentially weds the Mars programs of NASA and ESA and delineates their respective program responsibilities and goals.

“The key to moving forward on Mars exploration is international collaboration with Europe”, Weiler said to me in an interview. “We don’t have enough money to do these missions separately. The easy things have been done and the new ones are more complex and expensive. Cost overruns on Mars Science Lab (MSL) have created budgetary problems for future mars missions”. To pay for the MSL overrun, funds have to be taken from future mars budget allocations from fiscal years 2010 to 2014.

“2016 is a logical starting point to work together. NASA can have a 2016 mission if we work with Europe but not if we work alone. We can do so much more by working together since we both have the same objectives scientifically and want to carry out the same types of mission”. Weiler and Southwood instructed their respective science teams to meet and lay out a realistic and scientifically justifiable approach. Weiler explained to me that his goal and hope was to reinstate an exciting Mars architecture with new spacecraft launching at every opportunity which occurs every 26 months and which advance the state of the art for science. “It’s very important to demonstrate a critical new technology on each succeeding mission”.

More on the 2018 mission plan and beyond in a follow up report.