MARS 2020, CANDIDATES LANDING SITES, EXOMARS and THEIR RELATIONSHIP to MARS SAMPLE RETURN 10:25 A.M

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

MARS 2020, CANDIDATES LANDING SITES, EXOMARS and THEIR RELATIONSHIP to MARS SAMPLE RETURN 10:25 A.M 2nd International Mars Sample Return 2018 (LPI Contrib. No. 2071) sess303.pdf Thursday, April 26, 2018 MARS 2020, CANDIDATES LANDING SITES, EXOMARS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO MARS SAMPLE RETURN 10:25 a.m. Forum This session will present a status report on the Mars 2020 sample-caching rover, its candidate landing sites, the Exomars rover mission, and the relationship of all of these to Mars Sample Return. Chairs: Victoria Hipkin (Canadian Space Agency, Canada) Briony Horgan (Purdue University, USA) 10:25 a.m. Williford K. * *Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, USA The NASA Mars 2020 Rover Mission The NASA Mars 2020 rover mission will explore an astrobiologically relevant site to characterize its geology, evaluate past habitability, seek signs of ancient life, and assemble a returnable cache of samples. An overview of technical capabilities and scientific strategy in development will be presented with a focus on the role envisioned for Mars 2020 in a possible Mars sample return campaign. 10:45 a.m. Schulte M. * Meyer M. Grant J. Golombek M. *NASA Headquarters, USA The Mars 2020 Rover Mission Landing Site Candidates [#6026] The number of suitable landing sites for the Mars 2020 rover mission has been narrowed to three leading candidates: Jezero Crater, NE Syrtis, and Columbia Hills. Each offers geologic settings with the potential for preservation of biosignatures. 11:00 a.m. Vago J. L. * Svedhem H. Sefton-Nash E. Kminek G. Ruesch O. Haldemann A. F. C. Rodionov D. ExoMars Science Working Team *European Space Agency ExoMars Contributions to Mars Sample Return [#6021] Each of the two ExoMars missions has the potential to make discoveries that could inform and perhaps influence our collective strategy for a future Mars Sample Return mission. 11:15 a.m. DISCUSSION .
Recommended publications
  • Mars 2020 Radiological Contingency Planning
    National Aeronautics and Space Administration Mars 2020 Radiological Contingency Planning NASA plans to launch the Mars 2020 rover, produce the rover’s onboard power and to Perseverance, in summer 2020 on a mission warm its internal systems during the frigid to seek signs of habitable conditions in Mars’ Martian night. ancient past and search for signs of past microbial life. The mission will lift off from Cape NASA prepares contingency response plans Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida aboard a for every launch that it conducts. Ensuring the United Launch Alliance Atlas V launch vehicle safety of launch-site workers and the public in between mid-July and August 2020. the communities surrounding the launch area is the primary consideration in this planning. The Mars 2020 rover design is based on NASA’s Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in 2012 This contingency planning task takes on an and greatly increased our knowledge of the added dimension when the payload being Red Planet. The Mars 2020 rover is equipped launched into space contains nuclear material. to study its landing site in detail and collect and The primary goal of radiological contingency store the most promising samples of rock and planning is to enable an efficient response in soil on the surface of Mars. the event of an accident. This planning is based on the fundamental principles of advance The system that provides electrical power for preparation (including rehearsals of simulated Mars 2020 and its scientific equipment is the launch accident responses), the timely availability same as for the Curiosity rover: a Multi- of technically accurate and reliable information, Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator and prompt external communication with the (MMRTG).
    [Show full text]
  • Inventory of CO2 Available for Terraforming Mars
    PERSPECTIVE https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-018-0529-6 Inventory of CO2 available for terraforming Mars Bruce M. Jakosky 1,2* and Christopher S. Edwards3 We revisit the idea of ‘terraforming’ Mars — changing its environment to be more Earth-like in a way that would allow terres- trial life (possibly including humans) to survive without the need for life-support systems — in the context of what we know about Mars today. We want to answer the question of whether it is possible to mobilize gases present on Mars today in non- atmospheric reservoirs by emplacing them into the atmosphere, and increase the pressure and temperature so that plants or humans could survive at the surface. We ask whether this can be achieved considering realistic estimates of available volatiles, without the use of new technology that is well beyond today’s capability. Recent observations have been made of the loss of Mars’s atmosphere to space by the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission probe and the Mars Express space- craft, along with analyses of the abundance of carbon-bearing minerals and the occurrence of CO2 in polar ice from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Mars Odyssey spacecraft. These results suggest that there is not enough CO2 remaining on Mars to provide significant greenhouse warming were the gas to be emplaced into the atmosphere; in addition, most of the CO2 gas in these reservoirs is not accessible and thus cannot be readily mobilized. As a result, we conclude that terraforming Mars is not possible using present-day technology. he concept of terraforming Mars has been a mainstay of sci- Could the remaining planetary inventories of CO2 be mobi- ence fiction for a long time, but it also has been discussed from lized and emplaced into the atmosphere via current or plausible 1 a scientific perspective, initially by Sagan and more recently near-future technologies? Would the amount of CO2 that could T 2 by, for example, McKay et al.
    [Show full text]
  • Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Maneuver Plan for Mars 2020 Entry, Descent, and Landing Support and Beyond
    Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Ins5tute of Technology Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Maneuver Plan for Mars 2020 Entry, Descent, and Landing Support and Beyond Sean Wagner Premkumar Menon AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Meeting Ka'anapali, HI January 13{17, 2019 AAS Paper 19-233 c 2019 California Institute of Technology. U.S. Government sponsorship acknowledged. Jet Propulsion Laboratory MarsCalifornia Ins5tute of Technology Reconnaissance Orbiter Project Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter launched on August 12, 2005 from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and arrived at Mars on March 10, 2006. After aerobraking, MRO began the Primary Science Phase (PSP) in November 2006 and continues to perform science observations at Mars. MRO Spacecraft: Spacecraft Bus: 3-axis stabilized ACS system; 3-meter diameter High Gain Antenna; hydrazine propulsion system Instrument Suite: HiRISE Camera, CRISM Imaging Spectrometer, Mars Climate Sounder, Mars Color Imager, Context Camera, Shallow Subsurface Radar, Electra Proximity Link Payload (among other instrument payloads) January 15, 2019 MRO Maneuver Plan for Mars 2020 EDL Support and Beyond SVW { 3 MRO Primary Science Orbit (PSO) The MRO PSO is designed to satisfy science and mission requirements; the spacecraft is flown in an orbit designed to optimize the science instruments performance. The MRO PSO is defined by three key characteristics: Sun-synchronous orbit ascending node at 3:00 PM ± 15 minutes Local Mean Solar Time (LMST) (daylight equatorial crossing) Periapsis
    [Show full text]
  • Valuing Life Detection Missions Edwin S
    Valuing life detection missions Edwin S. Kite* (University of Chicago), Eric Gaidos (University of Hawaii), Tullis C. Onstott (Princeton University). * [email protected] Recent discoveries imply that Early Mars was habitable for life-as-we-know-it (Grotzinger et al. 2014); that Enceladus might be habitable (Waite et al. 2017); and that many stars have Earth- sized exoplanets whose insolation favors surface liquid water (Dressing & Charbonneau 2013, Gaidos 2013). These exciting discoveries make it more likely that spacecraft now under construction – Mars 2020, ExoMars rover, JWST, Europa Clipper – will find habitable, or formerly habitable, environments. Did these environments see life? Given finite resources ($10bn/decade for the US1), how could we best test the hypothesis of a second origin of life? Here, we first state the case for and against flying life detection missions soon. Next, we assume that life detection missions will happen soon, and propose a framework (Fig. 1) for comparing the value of different life detection missions: Scientific value = (Reach × grasp × certainty × payoff) / $ (1) After discussing each term in this framework, we conclude that scientific value is maximized if life detection missions are flown as hypothesis tests. With hypothesis testing, even a nondetection is scientifically valuable. Should the US fly more life detection missions? Once a habitable environment has been found and characterized, life detection missions are a logical next step. Are we ready to do this? The case for emphasizing habitable environments, not life detection: Our one attempt to detect life, Viking, is viewed in hindsight as premature or at best uncertain. In-space life detection experiments are expensive.
    [Show full text]
  • Insight Spacecraft Launch for Mission to Interior of Mars
    InSight Spacecraft Launch for Mission to Interior of Mars InSight is a robotic scientific explorer to investigate the deep interior of Mars set to launch May 5, 2018. It is scheduled to land on Mars November 26, 2018. It will allow us to better understand the origin of Mars. First Launch of Project Orion Project Orion took its first unmanned mission Exploration flight Test-1 (EFT-1) on December 5, 2014. It made two orbits in four hours before splashing down in the Pacific. The flight tested many subsystems, including its heat shield, electronics and parachutes. Orion will play an important role in NASA's journey to Mars. Orion will eventually carry astronauts to an asteroid and to Mars on the Space Launch System. Mars Rover Curiosity Lands After a nine month trip, Curiosity landed on August 6, 2012. The rover carries the biggest, most advanced suite of instruments for scientific studies ever sent to the martian surface. Curiosity analyzes samples scooped from the soil and drilled from rocks to record of the planet's climate and geology. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Begins Mission at Mars NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter launched from Cape Canaveral August 12. 2005, to find evidence that water persisted on the surface of Mars. The instruments zoom in for photography of the Martian surface, analyze minerals, look for subsurface water, trace how much dust and water are distributed in the atmosphere, and monitor daily global weather. Spirit and Opportunity Land on Mars January 2004, NASA landed two Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, on opposite sides of Mars.
    [Show full text]
  • NASA Advisory Council Planetary Protection Subcommittee, May 20‐21, 2014
    NASA Advisory Council Planetary Protection Subcommittee, May 20‐21, 2014 NASA ADVISORY COUNCIL Planetary Protection Subcommittee May 20-21, 2014 NASA Headquarters Washington, D.C. MEETING MINUTES _____________________________________________________________ Eugene Levy, Chair ____________________________________________________________ Gale Allen, Executive Secretary Report prepared by Joan M. Zimmermann Zantech IT, Inc. 1 NASA Advisory Council Planetary Protection Subcommittee, May 20-2t 2014 Table of Contents Introduction 3 PPO Update and Review 3 MSL Lessons Learned 5 InSight Status 8 Planetary Science and Mars Program Update 10 Contamination Limits for Planetary Life Detection 12 Mars Landing Site Selection Process 14 ESA 2018 Landing Site Selection 15 Mars 2020 Project Status 15 Public Comment 16 Discussion 16 Ethics Briefing 17 Discussion 17 Science Mission Directorate and Planetary Protection 17 Update on Special Regions Parameters 19 Status of Phobos /Demos Materials 21 Outer Solar System Special Regions: Enceladus and Beyond 22 JAXA Sample Return Working Group 23 Public Comment 24 Discussion 25 Appendix A- Attendees Appendix 8- Membership roster Appendix C- Presentations Appendix D- Agenda 2 NASA Advisory Council Planetary Protection Subcommittee, May 20-2t 2014 May 20.2014 Introduction The Executive Secretary of the Planetary Protection Subcommittee (PPS), Dr. Gale Allen, made preparatory announcements. Dr. Eugene Levy, PPS Chair, opened the meeting and noted there would be a heavy focus on Mars exploration, as it has become a timely and important issue. Introductions were made around the meeting room. Planetary Protection Office Update and Review Dr. Catharine Conley, Planetary Protection Officer (PPO) for NASA, briefly described the broad base of experience in the PPS, and reviewed the purpose of Planetary Protection (PP) and the policy, as it applies to all missions.
    [Show full text]
  • Explore Digital.Pdf
    EXPLORE “sic itur ad astra” ~ thus you shall go to the stars EXPERTISE FOR THE MISSION We’ve built more interplanetary spacecraft than all other U.S. companies combined. We’re ready for humanity’s next step, for Earth, the Sun, our planets … and beyond. We do this for the New capability explorers. And for us for a new space era Achieving in space takes tenacity. Lockheed Martin brings more We’ve never missed a tight (and finite) capability to the table than ever planetary mission launch window. before, creating better data, new Yet, despite how far we go, the most images and groundbreaking ways to important technologies we develop work. And we’re doing it with smarter improve life now, closer to home. factories and common products, Here on Earth. making our systems increasingly affordable and faster to produce. HALF A CENTURY AT MARS Getting to space is hard. Each step past that is increasingly harder. We’ve been a part of every NASA mission to Mars, and we know what it takes to arrive on another planet and explore. Our proven work includes aeroshells, autonomous deep space operations or building orbiters and landers, like InSight. AEROSHELLS VIKING 1 VIKING 2 PATHFINDER MARS POLAR SPIRIT OPPORTUNITY PHOENIX CURIOSITY INSIGHT MARS 2020 1976 1976 1996 LANDER 2004 2018 2008 2012 2018 2020 1999 ORBITERS MARS OBSERVER MARS GLOBAL MARS CLIMATE MARS ODYSSEY MARS RECONNAISSANCE MAVEN 1993 SURVEYOR ORBITER 2001 ORBITER 2014 1997 1999 2006 LANDERS VIKING 1 VIKING 2 MARS POLAR PHOENIX INSIGHT 1976 1976 LANDER 2008 2018 1999 Taking humans back to the Moon – We bring solutions for our customers that include looking outside our organization to deliver the best science through our spacecraft and operations expertise.
    [Show full text]
  • Mars Insight Launch Press Kit
    Introduction National Aeronautics and Space Administration Mars InSight Launch Press Kit MAY 2018 www.nasa.gov 1 2 Table of Contents Table of Contents Introduction 4 Media Services 8 Quick Facts: Launch Facts 12 Quick Facts: Mars at a Glance 16 Mission: Overview 18 Mission: Spacecraft 30 Mission: Science 40 Mission: Landing Site 53 Program & Project Management 55 Appendix: Mars Cube One Tech Demo 56 Appendix: Gallery 60 Appendix: Science Objectives, Quantified 62 Appendix: Historical Mars Missions 63 Appendix: NASA’s Discovery Program 65 3 Introduction Mars InSight Launch Press Kit Introduction NASA’s next mission to Mars -- InSight -- will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California as early as May 5, 2018. It is expected to land on the Red Planet on Nov. 26, 2018. InSight is a mission to Mars, but it is more than a Mars mission. It will help scientists understand the formation and early evolution of all rocky planets, including Earth. A technology demonstration called Mars Cube One (MarCO) will share the launch with InSight and fly separately to Mars. Six Ways InSight Is Different NASA has a long and successful track record at Mars. Since 1965, it has flown by, orbited, landed and roved across the surface of the Red Planet. None of that has been easy. Only about 40 percent of the missions ever sent to Mars by any space agency have been successful. The planet’s thin atmosphere makes landing a challenge; its extreme temperature swings make it difficult to operate on the surface. But if a spacecraft survives the trip, there’s a bounty of science to be collected.
    [Show full text]
  • MEPAG Report to PAC 08-2020 V4
    MEPAG Report to Planetary Science Advisory Committee R Aileen Yingst, Chair 18 August 2020 United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launches with NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover from Space Launch Complex 41, Thursday, July 30, 2020, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Credits: NASA/Joel Kowsky Outline • MEPAG committees current memberships • Recent and upcoming activities – DS White Papers • Current issues and findings from MEPAG 38 Subsurface water ice on Mars as revealed by Odyssey. Cool colors are closer to the surface than warm colors; black zones indicate areas where a spacecraft would sink into fine dust; the outlined box represents the ideal region for landing and resource extraction. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU 2 MEPAG Programmatics • Committees: – Steering Committee (Chair: R. Aileen Yingst (PSI), appointed June 2019) • W. Calvin (Univ. Nevada Reno) • J. Eigenbrode (GSFC) • D. Banfield (Cornell) • J. Filiberto (LPI) • S. Hubbard (Stanford University) • Vacancy • J. Johnson (past Chair, JHU/APL) • M. Meyer (NASA HQ) • D. Beaty, R. Zurek (JPL) • J. Bleacher/P. Niles (HEOMD, NASA HQ) Ex Officio members Self-portrait of InSight spacecraft. – Goals Committee (D. Banfield, Chair) • Goal I <Life> (S.S. Johnson, Georgetown University, J. Stern, GSFC; A. Davila, ARC) • Goal II <Climate> (R. Wordsworth, Harvard University, D. Brain (Univ. Colorado) • Goal III <Geology> (B. Horgan, Purdue, Becky Williams, PSI) • Goal IV <Human Exploration> (J. Bleacher, NASA HQ HEOMD; M. Rucker, P. Niles JSC) 3 Recent MEPAG Activities Ø Goals Document release (March, 2020) o The Goals document has gone through regular revisions driven by new discoveries and new technologies. This last revision took six months and went through several opportunities for community input.
    [Show full text]
  • The Mars 2020 Mission One Month After Landing
    52nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference 2021 (LPI Contrib. No. 2548) 1317.pdf The Mars 2020 Mission One Month After Landing. K.A. Farley1, J. Trosper2 and the Mars 2020 Science and Engineering Teams 1Caltech Pasadena, CA ([email protected]), 2Jet Propulsion Laboratory Pasadena, CA ([email protected]). Introduction: The Mars 2020 mission was observations is an important advance and an essential successfully launched on July 30, 2020, and as of this component of Perseverance’s search for biosignatures. writing has completed 85% of its cruise to Mars with no The mission’s most sophisticated new element, the significant unexpected events. Shortly after 12:30 PM Sampling and Caching System, allows Perseverance to Pacific time on February 18, 2021, the spacecraft is collect and store samples for possible Earth return. To expected to transit the Martian atmosphere and deposit take a sample, this system selects one of the 38 the Perseverance rover on the planet’s surface. This ultraclean sample tubes from a storage assembly inside abstract summarizes the mission and its expected the rover and transfers the tube to the robotic arm that activities, focusing on the first 90 sols and the linkage then cores ~15 g of rock or regolith directly into the of the mission to a possible joint NASA-ESA Mars tube. Once returned to the rover interior, the tube is Sample Return campaign. Immediate post-landing assessed for acquired volume, a picture looking down science results will be described at the Conference. the bore is acquired, and the tube is hermetically sealed Mission Goals: The central objectives of the Mars and returned to the storage assembly.
    [Show full text]
  • Mars-2020-Mission-Overview
    QUICK FACTS Mars 2020 Perseverance mission major components Perseverance rover, cruise stage (to fly to Mars), aeroshell (includes the back shell and heat shield to protect the rover as it descends toward the surface) and descent stage (which performs the sky crane maneuver to lower the rover to the surface) Perseverance Rover Mass: About 2,260 pounds (1,025 kilograms), including a robotic arm with a 99-pound (45-kilogram) turret at the end Dimensions: About 10 feet long (not including the arm), 9 feet wide and 7 feet tall (about 3 meters long, 2.7 meters wide and 2.2 meters tall), with a robotic arm that is about 7 feet (2.1 meters) long Payload Instruments: 130 pounds (59 kilograms) for seven instruments: Mastcam-Z, Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA), Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE), Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL), Radar Imager for Mars’ Subsurface Experiment (RIMFAX), Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals (SHERLOC) and SuperCam Sample Caching System: 1 bit carousel with 9 drill bits for sample acquisition and surface analysis, 1 1.6- foot-long (0.5-meters-long) internal sample handling arm and 43 sample collection tubes, including 5 “witness” tubes Power: Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) provided by the U.S. Department of Energy that uses the natural decay of plutonium-238 to generate a steady flow of about 110 watts of electricity. Two lithium-ion rechargeable batteries are available to meet peak demands of rover activities when the demand temporarily exceeds the MMRTG’s electrical output levels.
    [Show full text]
  • Another Mars Mission... but What About the Rest of the Solar System? 26 November 2013, by Helen Maynard-Casely
    Another Mars mission... but what about the rest of the solar system? 26 November 2013, by Helen Maynard-Casely Sure it is the most viable planet that we, the human race, could go and walk on but it's probably not the best hope for the discovery of biological activity. Don't get me wrong, I'm a massive fan of any space mission, and every step we make in space is a "giant" leap for us down here on Earth. Every endeavour we have undertaken on Mars has thrown up yet more intrigue, and we've barely scratched the surface. But let's not kid ourselves; it looks pretty dead up MAVEN’s on its way to Mars … but look at what we’ve there. If we do find any biology on Mars, it going to sent to our other neighbours. Credit: NASA/Goddard be most interesting working out how it has hung on for billions of years (and try and get some survival tips). Following India's maiden Mars probe launch earlier I admit "The Mars Overload" is a bit of in the month, last week saw the successful launch misrepresentation, as we are currently exploring (or of the Martian Atmospheres and Volatiles Evolution travelling to) pretty much every other planet in our mission, or MAVEN for short. solar system right now (with two notable exceptions). So what are they all up to? With the second spacecraft this month now on its way to Mars, you could be forgiven for thinking Mercury we've forgotten that there is a number of other planets in our solar system.
    [Show full text]