Henry Bortman (writing at Astrobiology Magazine) talks about a recent "road test" for the planned Mars Science Laboratory in the high Arctic.
NASA will wait to decide whether the Mars Science Laboratory will be equippped with solar panels or with nuclear batteries. "Going nuclear" opens up a wider range of landing sites and the possibility of an even longer mission on Mars than that of Spirit and Opportunity. Despite the "stink" raised in some corners of the internet, open meetings held about the nuclear issue raised no protests, no public comments, and only one written comment.
When the Mars Science Laboratory travels to Mars in 2009, where should the rover land to explore the Red Planet? The debate is starting.
NASA is holding its first workshop to determine the landing site for the planned Mars Science Laboratory. The number of possible choices is high:
Note: the number of potential landing sites is high because MSL entry, descent, and landing capabilities enable a small landing error ellipse (20 km diameter), high landing site altitude (<2 km), and wide latitudes (±60°).
And should be interesting:
A candidate landing site should contain evidence suggestive of a past or present habitable environment. To the extent that it can be determined with existing data, the geological, chemical, and/or biological evidence for habitability should be expected to be preserved for, accessible to, and interpretable by the MSL investigations.
I'll be most interested in seeing what is proposed!
While Spirit and Opportunity haven't retired yet, the next generation rover, the Mars Science Laboratory, is being readied. Scheduled for launch (as a solo mission, not a pair of rovers) in 2009 with a launch in 2010, it will bring a whole new set of "eyes" to Mars. (Given all the "first-time" and "never-flown-before" concepts involved, I think they really ought to make this a dual-rover mission!)
The planned Mars Science Laboratory (scheduled for a December 2009 launch, barring any budget-induced slippage) will be outfitted with a laser and a telescope to allow for remote observations of interesting rocks. This should enable the rover to analyze an area faster, as it will not have to drive up to each rock to examine it.
Mars has undergone a remarkable evolution since the first probe from Earth went sailing past the planet, sending back a few shots. Given what we saw, Mars was declared a dead planet, somewhat like our Moon, not really worthy of our attention.
Continue reading "The Changing Face of Mars"
MarsBlog has a summary of a talk given by Chris Shank, special assistant to NASA Administrator Mike Griffin. Lots of stuff here about the VSE, the planned return to the Moon, what the return to flight effort cost (lots of things scaled back), why the Mars Telecommunications Orbiter was cancelled, and the status of the Mars Science Laboratory rover.
Alas, a paper model of the MRO probe has yet to surface. So, I can't recommend my usual pre-launch ritual of building a model. Instead, take a look at the past Mars missions, courtesy of New York Newsday. Here's a profile of some of the people and institutions involved in the mission. Is this the shape of a future martian airplane? If we are to colonize Mars, how will we grow plants there? Why, by relieving their anxiety, of course! NASA's science mission director thinks about the future while Louis Friedman complains that NASA is losing its martian focus.
NASA Administrator Mike Griffin has been criss-crossing the country, visiting various NASA centers. Here's an account of his visit to Dryden Flight Research Center and a visit to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Continue reading "Crossing the Country"