Now that
NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander is settled in on the arctic plains of Mars, taking
pictures and starting to gather samples, space agencies all over the world are
planning and building the next robots and gadgets they plan to send to probe
the mysteries of the red planet.
NASA plans
to waste no time in getting back to Mars after Phoenix finishes its three-month
mission. By September or October of next year, launch is set for the Mars
Science Laboratory, a beefed-up rover that will further explore the Martian
surface (it will be the largest vehicle ever sent to Mars).
And Americans
won't be the only ones visiting the red planet: The European Space Agency (ESA)
is currently working on its own rover, dubbed ExoMars, which would be equipped
to scout out signs of past or present life on Mars. The Chinese and Russian
space agencies are also collaborating on a mission to the planet's
asteroid-like moon, Phobos.
Mega-rover
The Mars
Science Laboratory (which won't be the craft's final name) will be much larger
than its Mars Exploration Rover (MER) cousins, Spirit and Opportunity,
which are currently still cranking around the Martian surface. The
"mega-rover" will weigh in at about 2,040 pounds (925 kg) — sort of
the monster truck of Mars rovers.
This hefty
size should allow the rover to take more instruments to Mars to poke and prod
the surface — the payload will be about 10 instruments to be exact, weighing in
at a total of 154 pounds (70 kg). Like other Mars landers and rovers before it,
MSL will of course have cameras to snap pictures of the Martian landscape and
help guide its six wheels across the terrain. One camera, the Mars Hand Lens Imager,
will take extreme close-up shots of the surface.
But unlike
the MERs, which were like geologists on Mars, MSL is designed to be more of a
chemist. One MSL tool, called ChemCam, will be new to Mars. It is a laser that
can be used to zap Martian rocks to create a fine dust that it can then analyze
to determine the rock's composition. These scans should help scientists
determine what to take a closer look at.
"If we
like that rock, we get up close and personal with that rock," said Fuk Li,
manager of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
where MSL is being designed and assembled.
The rover
can do this with its drill, which can suction onto a rock, bore down into it,
and extract a sample of the powder to be analyzed by the instruments inside the
rover, including an Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer, the Sample Analysis at
Mars instrument and an X-ray diffraction and fluorescence instrument called
CheMin.
The rover's
size will also enable it to venture further across the Martian landscape, up to
12 miles (20 kilometers) from its landing site, which it is projected to reach
sometime during July 2010.
The wheels
over the rover, which will be attached to long, spindly legs, will enable the
vehicle to roll over rocks if it needs to, "but the fact that we can climb
over the rocks doesn't mean we want to on Mars," Li said, because of the
possible damage they could do to the craft.
Go, go
'Sky Crane'
With the
proposed launch date just a little more than a year away, engineers at JPL are
working to get the craft, which is among the biggest they have ever assembled,
ready in time.
"We're
in the middle of putting the spacecraft together," Li said, likening the
job to "a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle."
The MSL
team has finished the wheels and deck of the rover and are working on building
the avionics and computer power distribution system that will go inside and
help run the vehicle. The incomplete rover is affectionately referred to as the
"Scarecrow."
"It has
no brain, that's why they call it the Scarecrow," Li said.
Where
exactly MSL will land has yet to be determined. NASA has its Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter looking at six candidate sites within 30 degrees north
and south latitude of the equator.
To get to
its landing site,
wherever that ends up being, MSL will have a cruise stage to guide it to Mars,
similar to other spacecraft, a heat shield to protect it during its initial
descent, and a parachute and back shell that will separate from the craft during
its descent, also like other Martian probes.
But after
this stage, MSL will use a completely new
way of touching down on the surface, with a system called Sky Crane. The
Sky Crane will have cords that attach it to the lander. As the rover falls to
the surface, the Sky Crane's thrusters should slow their descent and then
"very, very, very slowly," it will lower the rover down with the
cords, Li said.
As this is
happening, the rover unfolds its wheels. When these touch the surface, the Sky
Crane senses, "Aha! I've landed," Li said, and detaches its cords
from the rover and flies away and crashes on the surface.
The mission
is slated to last for two Earth years (one Martian year). While Spirit and
Opportunity have lasted far longer than their three-month-long planned mission
(and are still kicking), Li and other NASA scientists aren't counting on MSL
lasting longer, because like both MERs, the mechanical joints of MSL will
eventually wear down with age.
"We're
designing it to last two years," Li said.
Mission to the moon
The
European Space Agency (ESA) is also planning their own rover that would be
aimed at looking for extinct or current life on Mars.
Dubbed ExoMars,
the 650 million euro ($876 million) mission would include instruments,
including a few from the United States, aimed at characterizing the Martian
biological environment. One of the planned instruments is a drill that could
bore into the terrain to about 8 feet (2.5 meters) below the surface, which has
never been done before on Mars.
ExoMars is
currently slated to lift off in 2013 aboard either a European Ariane 5 rocket
or a Russian Proton rocket. It would include an orbiter to relay
communications, a descent module and a rover. The rover would land either using
an inflatable breaking system or parachute system.
ESA is
planning to power the rover using solar arrays. The rover would be able to
travel a few kilometers over the Martian surface, navigating autonomously using
optical sensors.
The Chinese
and Russian space agencies are also currently planning a Martian mission, but
theirs will be aimed at one of Mars' two moons, Phobos. Russia last tried to reach the tiny satellite with its Phobos-1 and Phobos-2 probes, which
were lost in 1988 and 1999, respectively.
The new Phobos-Grunt
probe, currently being built at Lavochkin Scientific Production Association
in Khimki, Russia, would launch in 2009. The anticipated three-year-long
mission aims to deliver rocks from Phobos back to Earth, map the surface of the
satellite and analyze the plasma and dust that surrounds it.
Of course
these steps are only just the next of many steps in exploring our ruddy
neighbor. Eventually, both NASA and the ESA hope to return samples of Mars'
red-orange rocks and one day send humans to take the first actual step on the
planet.
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