NASA's Mars program could undergo major alternation, driven
by budgetary and technical issues, as well as science goals.
"We've been getting inputs, advice, actions items...from the road
mapping teams," said Doug McCuistion, Mars
Exploration Program Director at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
"Nothing is finalized at this point. There have been no final decisions made
or, frankly, any interim decisions made as yet."
A scenario now under active discussion is slipping the mobile
Mars Science Laboratory from 2009 to 2011 - a move that could see the building
of two rovers to double-up the science that can be gleaned from the red planet,
as well as reduce program risk.
NASA is engaged in an extensive campaign of "roadmaps" - a
way to flesh out the details of a multi-year Mars effort that could lead to a humans-to-Mars
effort by 2030, as listed on some NASA planning charts.
McCuistion
said the potential to slip the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) to 2011 is on the
table, but it is not confirmed.
"The MSL discussions are swirling around a couple of
things," McCuistion said. "One of them is robustness of the science and the
technology."
Bigger than either of the now on-duty Mars Exploration
Rovers - Spirit and Opportunity - the MSL is a "huge leap forward" from those
smaller machines, McCuistion noted, being larger in mass and able to carry 10
times the payload mass.
Risky
business: science eggs in one basket
Getting a much larger MSL safely down onto Mars means use of
new technology, not air bags as utilized in the last three successful NASA Mars
lander missions. "So there's technology risk trying to get to the surface of
another planet," McCuistion added.
Another issue flagged by Mars road mapping officials regarding
MSL is science risk. Plopping down in an uninteresting area of martian real estate is one concern. So too is the potential
for a failure. Putting all the science eggs in one basket - in one large and
costly lander - is risky business.
McCuistion said discussion is ongoing regarding doing more
than one Mars Science Laboratory. "If we do two, we can't do two in 2009.
There's no way," he explained, underscoring both technology and budget
constraints.
"If one of the decisions is to go to two, and again, that
decision has not been made, I can't do it in 2009," McCuistion said. "These
guys [two MSL rovers] are expensive."
International
partnership?
What role international collaboration might play in this
time frame, "to keep the level of science up," is also being explored,
McCuistion pointed out.
The potential for working with an international partner is
possible, he said, depending on funding availability. Collaboration with an
international capability, McCuistion deemed as "something that we all wanted to
do...to expand our international cooperation."
"The Europeans, as one example, are very anxious to get back
to Mars after their trouble with Beagle," McCuistion said. The British-built Beagle
lander was ejected by the now-orbiting European Space Agency Mars Express, but
was lost to the planet in late December 2003.
Other potentials are "in the mill" for 2009 if MSL has to be
moved, McCuistion stated.
Mars decision making and roadmap development are headed to
NASA's Advanced Planning and Integration Office, to be tied together with other
roadmaps underway, and then sent onward to the National Academies - committees
of experts that review national issues and give advice to the federal
government and the public.
Sample
return trial run
In other Mars matters, a 2009 launch slot is targeted for
NASA's Mars Telecommunications Orbiter (MTO). It is the first piece of
communications infrastructure at the planet for all future Mars missions.
MTO will also carry a still to be picked science package,
including an evaluation of laser optical communications gear to increase data
flow between Mars and Earth. In addition, a key demonstration of tracking, rendezvous
and maneuvering with an ejected football-sized canister is planned.
That experiment will not involve MTO capturing the canister.
But the test will help hone future robotic Mars return sample procedures,
McCuistion said.
A NASA-released announcement of opportunity (AO) focused on
competitive selection of an MTO science package is forthcoming, McCuistion
continued. That AO would only identify the dollar value and mass available for
the science experiment.
"So there will be a science opportunity in 2009, which is
very important for the science community to keep in mind," McCuistion said.
There is an overriding message from McCuistion regarding the
major look at Mars exploration plans now in progress: "Science is still the
driving priority. As soon as we have concrete information on what the mission
portfolio looks like, we will be communicating that broadly and widely as soon
as we are able to do that."
Budget
issue: Spirit and Opportunity
An action item coming up shortly is the extension of the
long-lived Spirit and Opportunity Mars Exploration Rover mission. A proposal is
soon to land on McCuistion's desk to extend rover operations for another six
months. But it's clear that money is tight.
"They are now funded through the end of March. I continually
challenge them [the Mars Exploration Rover team] to try to reduce the cost of
operations. But we are pretty close to the bottom of what it cost to operate
these [two rovers]," McCuistion noted. "They are very labor-intensive from an
operations perspective...they are an expensive system to operate. I think they
will always be that way."
The money request that's forthcoming - with the price tag
still to be determined - would give Spirit and Opportunity
a new lease on life from April 1 to the end of September, McCuistion said.
Humans
to Mars: safety checklist
Charts being floated about NASA point to a projected
humans-to-Mars mission by 2030.
But to prepare for such a sojourn, a wide-ranging Mars human
precursor checklist has been drawn up.
Deemed in some quarters as a "Safe on Mars" research agenda,
there is a lengthy list of things to be done from a mission, technology, and
science perspective before dispatching a crew to the red planet.
"It's amazing as you go through this," McCuistion concluded,
"there are a lot of things that, as we dig deeper, a lot of us have not thought
of. We need to do some very serious studies internally and externally to
understand all the pieces...because it's a dangerous thing to be going that far
away from home."
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