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Curiosity on the Move cover-fin-OCT2012_Layout 1 9/12/12 3:04 PM Page 1 9 AMERICA AEROSPACE October 2012 OCTOBER 2012 Curiosity on the move Declassifying the space race: Part 2 High stakes for human-rating spacecraft A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF AERONAUTICS AND ASTRONAUTICS BEATlayout1012_Layout 1 9/11/12 3:24 PM Page 2 ESA to break new ground with ExoMars ESA GOVERNMENT MINISTERS ARE DUE According to ESA, “Final agree- With ESA now committed to develop- to meet in late November to decide on ments to be developed with Russia in ing the rover by itself—the first time it the future of the ExoMars program, a the coming months and final program will have built a robotic rover—the bill two-mission project to search for evi- configuration will be submitted to the for the mission is climbing. In June dence of life on Mars. The first mis- ESA Council Meeting at Ministerial ESA announced a tranche of funds to sion, due for launch in 2016, com- level in November to approve. Av- support the program until the end of prises a trace-gas-sensing orbiter and the year, and the project enjoys the an entry, descent, and landing political support of the key European demonstrator module (EDM), to space organizations—particu- be followed in 2018 with a larly the Italian Space robotic rover equipped Agency, which has a to drill beneath the managing role. The planet’s surface. initial successes ExoMars Mission 2018 Finding of the NASA support Curiosity Mars The project has rover program had a complex fi- have also helped as nancial history. Origi- European govern- nally it was conceived as ments gain political sup- an ESA/NASA program, with port for an indigenous robotic NASA providing the launch vehicles rover capability. for both missions and a share of the design and production work on the ExoMars rover/ rover. But when NASA pulled out ear- enues to find some additional money Curiosity comparisons lier this year because of budgetary that would be needed to complete the The early collaboration between ESA problems, ESA negotiated with Rus- mission as envisaged have been inves- and NASA on the rover design has sia’s Roscomos for the use of two Pro- tigated, mainly through redistribution yielded some beneficial results. “The ton launchers to replace the NASA- of internal resources.” time spent working together was ben- sponsored Atlas rockets and to supply ESA has already committed sub- eficial for both sides,” according to instruments for the trace gas orbiter. stantial sums to the program. It origi- Mark Roe, the rover vehicle project European space industry experts nally budgeted around €1 billion for manager with Astrium U.K. “It has are quietly confident that the project the project, but this was based on shown our U.S. colleagues that Eu- will go ahead, despite the financial NASA partnering in the rover program rope does have unique technologies, challenges. and providing the launch vehicles. and we have learnt from them some 4 AEROSPACE AMERICA/OCTOBER 2012 BEATlayout1012_Layout 1 9/11/12 3:24 PM Page 3 of the lessons of their real practical NASA’s Curiosity uses nuclear ExoMars Mission 2016 achievements.” power, we will use solar ar- But the European ExoMars rover rays, so we have a different will be a very different kind of vehicle thermal challenge. We have to from Curiosity. heat our rover with electrical “The U.S. rover is significantly big- power, and we are concerned ger—which means in the European with the challenge conserving version we have to implement a heat; with Curiosity the chal- greater level of equipment integra- lenge is power dissipation. tion,” says Roe. There are a number of And Curiosity doesn’t have a design differences. “Within the loco- drill—we are building our motion system, we both have a six- rover to get samples from be- wheel configuration; but in the Euro- neath the surface with the aid pean version these are driven through of subsurface radar.” three bogies, which gives us the op- “I think the two rovers are portunity to ‘wheel-walk,’ to move the complementary, not competi- wheel ahead of the steering, which tive,” says Sue Horne, space explo- The U.K. is contributing the Mars means that if you are stuck in soft ration program manager with the U.K. X-ray diffractometer to identify min- sand it will allow the vehicle to crawl Space Agency. “ExoMars will drill eral structures, the Raman spectro- out more easily. down 2 m below the surface to look scope to measure seismic movements, “Our navigation system features a for evidence of life, evidence which and the life marker DHIP to detect or- higher level of soft control, which will might have been destroyed by the ul- ganic molecules deriving from past or allow us to perform obstacle guidance traviolet radiation on the surface of present life on Mars in samples col- in a more intelligent way. And while the planet.” lected by drilling. Program aims and partnerships The Exo (Exobiology) Mars program will •Access to the subsurface to acquire samples. the EDM’s radar altimeter. Thales Alenia search for signs of past and present life on •Sample acquisition, preparation, distribu- Space France is responsible for the design Mars, examine how the water and geochemical tion, and analysis. and integration of the orbiter module, while environment varies, and investigate Martian For the 2016 mission ESA will contribute Astrium U.K. is producing the rover. atmospheric trace gases and their sources— the orbiter and the EDM as well as mission According to the stakeholder meeting especially whether the presence of methane operation control for these elements. Russia held in May, the program is proceeding on in the atmosphere is a result of biological or will contribute the Proton launcher and other schedule for both missions, with the 2016 chemical processes. scientific experiments. This will enhance the mission now in the design development phase, The 2016 mission includes a trace gas ‘science’ value of the 2016 mission more than following a successful preliminary design orbiter and an entry, descent, and landing originally envisaged, according to ESA. review (PDR) in December 2010 and trace demonstrator module (EDM). The orbiter will For the 2018 mission, ESA will contribute gas-orbiter PDR in December 2011. Deliveries carry scientific instruments to detect and study the carrier, elements of the Russian EDL mod- for the 2016 mission will start with the atmospheric trace gases. Some of the EDM ule, the complete rover including various engineering/functional models of the avionics sensors will evaluate the lander’s performance experiments and a drill, the mission operations, test benches and the structural-thermal model as it descends, and others will study the envi- and the rover operations. Russia will provide a of the EDM starting before the end of this year. ronment at the landing site. The 2018 mission Proton launcher, some elements of the carrier, The 2018 mission is now in the ‘feasibility’ includes the landing of a rover, equipped with most of the EDL module, some scientific phase, to culminate in March 2013 with the a drill to collect rock samples from beneath the instruments, and experiment contributions system requirements review. The design of the surface of the planet. to the ESA rover. rover is currently in a ‘chilled’ rather than The mission will seek to validate a The ExoMars prime contractor is Thales strictly ‘frozen’ status, according to Astrium number of technologies for future sample Alenia Space-Italy, which is also responsible for U.K.’s Mark Roe, with agency-level reviews next return missions: the design of the EDM, the development of the year to clarify the design baseline. Those will •Entry, descent, and landing (EDL) of a analytical laboratory drawer—which includes include how the rover will be deployed within payload on the Martian surface. the Pasteur Payload instruments—its integration the Russian-built carrier, which is to deliver it •Surface mobility with a rover. on the rover, the onboard computer, and safely onto the Martian surface. AEROSPACE AMERICA/OCTOBER 2012 5 BEATlayout1012_Layout 1 9/11/12 3:24 PM Page 4 But the U.S. is the only nation to Mars exploration beyond NASA and ESA India plans to launch its first Mars orbiter in November 2013, using Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle have successfully landed a rover and PSLV-XL, with a 25-kg scientific payload to measure climate, geology, and the possibilities of life. instruments on the Martian surface. If Other non-U.S. missions to the planet include MetNet, led by the Finnish Meteorological Institute ExoMars does succeed in landing a (FMI) and comprising a consortium including FMI, Lavochkin Association, the Russian Space Research rover on the planet, it will give Europe Institute, and Spain’s Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial to deploy several semi-hard-landing a new capability in planetary explo- craft carrying “a versatile science payload focused on the atmospheric science of Mars.” China’s first ration, which until now has been the Mars satellite, Yinghuo-1, was lost on the 2011 Russian Phobos-Grunt mission. Japan sent the orbiter preserve of the U.S. Hope to Mars in 1998, but ground controllers were unable to direct it into Mars orbit. International dimensions ESA sent the Mars Express mission The initial success of NASA’s Curiosity The ExoMars project is different in to the planet in 2003. It had two ele- rover program in the dramatic landing other ways, too. It marks the start of a ments, an orbiter (for high-resolution on the Martian surface has captured new era of international cooperation imaging, mapping, and surface and the imagination of Europe’s public on Mars missions, with a focus on subsurface structural analysis) and the and, significantly, its politicians.
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