The Critical Importance of an Integrated Approach Between the Mars Surveyor Program and the Future Human Exploration Landing Site Selection

Workshop on Mars 2001 2547.pdf

THE CRITICAL IMPORTANCE OF AN INTEGRATED APPROACH BETWEEN THE MARS SURVEYOR PROGRAM AND THE FUTURE HUMAN EXPLORATION LANDING SITE SELECTION. N. A. Cabrol SETI Institute/NASA Ames Research Center, Space Science Division, MS 245-3 Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000. Email: [email protected].nasa.gov .

Rationale: The priority science objectives of the Preliminary studies must be made before sending a Mars Surveyor Program are to document the evolution human crew to Mars. These studies must encompass of water, life, and climate, and to assess the existing the assessment of the environment, which include, for resources on Mars. The same areas of investigations are instance, its level of hostility in terms of radiation planned by the Human Exploration and Development This is the role of the MSP 2001 that will be conduct- of Space (HEDS) for the human exploration of Mars ing environmental assessment for the HEDS program [the Reference Mission, NASA SP 6107, 1997]. The during the Athena Precursor (01’APEX) mission, objectives of automated and human exploration are while the MECA experiment will test the level of thus very close, although we can assume that the em- chemical toxicity of the soil, the presence of abrasive phasis could vary (e.g. seeking for resources might be a soil dust component as a potential threat for the astro- more developed activity for the human exploration that naut spacesuit, and the geoelectrical-triboelectrical for the current automated exploration). Therefore, the character of the surface environment [Marshall, 1999 current automated missions of the Surveyor Program this Workshop]. are an important source of information that will influ- This assessment only is of vital importance for the ence the way we will explore Mars with EVA-Rover success and the safety of a human mission to Mars. crews in the future. It also makes sense that the Sur- Another example can be taken from the weather as- veyor Program sites are likely to be high-priority can- sessment of the landing site region. It is clear that the didate-sites for landing human mission for the simple regional and local weather (e.g. recurrence and magni- reason that we will know the environment associated tude of dust storms, cycle, directions and importance of to these sites better than the rest of Mars. Thus, there daily dust devils) will strongly influence the daily ac- is a critical need to include an important HEDS com- tivity of the astronauts at the surface of Mars. However, ponent in the Mars Surveyor Program site selection. although the site for the 2001 program seems to be The implications are not only science, but also tech- selected according to its potential to document the nology and engineering, mission safety and cost effec- Surveyor Program science objectives -- and the avail- tiveness. ability of the MOC image coverage as provided by the MOC team -- it is not clear that a particular emphasis A Necessary Connection: The new vision of Mars has been put on how this site was going to respond to provided by the current Mars Global Surveyor mission the demand of these environmental assessments and the and the recent first Silver Lake field experiment be- instruments and experiments that have been designed tween an EVA astronaut and a rover (ASRO project), for. These criteria were never really hardly discussed as see Fig. 1, [Cabrol, 1999a,b; Cabrol et al., 1999a,b] main parameters during the 2001 landing site selection demonstrate the necessity of a synergism between the previous workshops, when it is a matter of vital impor- Surveyor Program and the HEDS landing site require- tance. ments. There are many other reasons to inject more HEDS discussions in the Surveyor landing sites selection and use the HEDS arguments as important criteria of site selection more than they currently are. The recent ASRO field experiment, which for the first time com- bined a rover and an EVA suited test subject in the field to simulate an EVA-Rover exploration of a planetary surface, showed that it would be a misconception to believe that we will be able to design a safe and productive mission to Mars by just assembling the technology and instruments we currently have, the exploration strategies that were used for the Moon, and hope to be successful on Mars [Cabrol, 1999b]. The exploration of Mars will come with a series of specific technical and physical challenges. New suits, new in- Fig. 1 EVA astronaut and rover exploring the Sil- struments and experiments need to be designed and ver Lake (Mojave Desert, CA) test site during the tested. They will be better designed and ready for the ASRO field experiment in February 1999. Martian field if we know in which geological environ- Workshop on Mars 2001 2547.pdf

SITE SLECTION FOR SURVEYOR AND HEDS: N. A. Cabrol

ments we are sending the human crew, and what could be their tasks. Also, the perspective of building a base Cabrol, 1999b (to be published). The ASRO Pro- on Mars should be always present in the selection of ject Team. Proceedings of the Astronaut-Rover Inter- sites. Such site might provide the necessary elements action Post Silver Lake Field Test Debriefing. Lessons to allow natural protection for a crew, and resources learned, and directions for future human exploration (access to water – liquid or ice --). Surveyor can pro- of planetary surfaces. NASA Ames Research Center, vide this crucial knowledge and become a powerful 70 pages. precursor to human missions. Cabrol, N. A., J. J. Kosmo, R. C. Trevino, C. R. Using the Surveyor Fleet as a Precursor for Stoker, the Marsokhod Rover Team, and the Advanced Human Exploration: All the above assessment stud- EVA Technology Team, 1999a. Astronaut-Rover ies will have to be done imperiously anyway before Interaction for Planetary Surface Exploration: 99’ Sil- any human mission can be sent on Mars. It would be ver Lake first ASRO experiment. 30th Lun. Plan. Sci. wise and much cost effective to use the Surveyor Pro- Conf., 1069. gram as a Precursor Fleet for the human missions, and inject a strong and effective synergism between HEDS Cabrol, N. A., J. J. Kosmo, R. C. Trevino,, D. and MSP in term of landing site selection. If this syn- Eppler, C. R. Stoker, H. J. Thomas, M. G. Bualat, J. ergism is not achieved, we will end up with the neces- A. Schreiner, M. H. Sims, E. Zbinden, L. Nguyen, sity of sending other automated missions with a spe- A. Kline, T. Blackmon, L. Kobayashi, A. Wright, C. cial HEDS focus prior to manned spacecrafts in order to Mina, K. Baker, Eric Huber, E. A. Grin, V. C. achieve the environmental survey, while this aspect Gulick, and G. K. Hovde, and C. S. Cockell 1999b. could be an ongoing effectively coupled with the Sur- The ASRO Project: Science Results of the First As- veyor missions. tronaut-Rover Field Experiment, Silver Lake (Mojave Desert), California. Submitted to the Journal of Geo- Reference : physical Research-Planets.

Cabrol, N. A. 1999a. The ASRO Project: Astro- Marshall, J. R. 1999. Optimizing Site Selection naut-Rover Interaction in Planetary Surface Explora- for HEDS. Workshop on Mars 2001: Integrated Sci- tion. Science Plan, Technical Report, (Trevino, R. C., ence in Preparation for Sample Return and Human J. J. Kosmo, and N. A. Cabrol Eds.), NASA Ames Exploration. (abstract). Research Center, 53 pages.