EXPLORE


JOINRENEWJOIN

Get Your 2009 Year in Space Calendar!
  

Planetary News: Mars (2004)

NASA Selects Investigations for 2009 Mars Science Laboratory

15 December 2004

As Spirit and Opportunity continue their treks through the Martian winter -- still on duty nearly a year after their arrivals, back down on Earth, NASA is already planning the robot rover that will follow them.

The space agency selected eight proposals yesterday that are to provide instrumentation and associated science investigations for the mobile Mars Science Laboratory rover, scheduled for launch in 2009.

Part of the space agency's Mars Exploration Program, the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, is to deliver a mobile laboratory to the surface of the Red Planet to explore a local region as a potential habitat for past or present life. According to the current blueprint, the laboratory would operate under its own power, and will be designed to remain active for one Mars year (equal to two Earth years) after landing. MSL will also carry a pulsed neutron source and detector for measuring hydrogen -- including water, to be provided by the Russian Federal Space Agency, and a meteorological package and an ultraviolet sensor from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science.

Like Spirit and Opportunity, MSL will focus primarily on imaging, geology, and environmental investigations, and will not be assigned solely to look for signs of life. The roving laboratory will, however, carry a sample analysis package capable of detecting organics -- and that could well provide the needed clues to determine if Martian microbes are thriving today on the Red Planet. Just exactly where MSL will land has yet to be determined, but Meridiani Planum -- the flat plains-like area where Opportunity uncovered evidence earlier this year of a past salty sea -- is one place under consideration.

"This mission represents a tremendous leap forward in the exploration of Mars," said NASA's Deputy Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, Ghassem Asrar. "MSL is the next logical step beyond the twin Spirit and Opportunity rovers."

Calling MSL "an extremely capable system," Douglas McCuistion, Mars Exploration Program director at NASA Headquarters, pointed out that "the selected instruments will bring an analytical laboratory to the Martian surface for the first time since the Viking landers over 25 years ago."

The instruments, principal investigators, and investigations selected are:

"Mars Science Laboratory Mast Camera," Michael Malin, of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Ca. The Mast Camera is to perform multi-spectral, stereo imaging at lengths ranging from kilometers to centimeters, and will be able to acquire compressed high-definition video at 10 frames per second without the use of the rover computer.

"ChemCam: Laser Induced Remote Sensing for Chemistry and Micro-Imaging," Roger Wiens, of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, N.M. ChemCam would ablate surface coatings from materials at standoff distances of up to 10 meters and measure elemental composition of underlying rocks and soils.

"MAHLI: Mars Hand Lens Imager for the Mars Science Laboratory," Kenneth Edgett, of Malin Space Science Systems. MAHLI will be used to image rocks, soil, frost and ice at resolutions 2.4 times better, and with a wider field of view, than the Microscopic Imager on the Mars Exploration Rovers.

"The Alpha-Particle-X-ray-Spectrometer for Mars Science Laboratory," Ralf Gellert, of the Max-Planck-Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Ger. This instrument will determine elemental abundance of rocks and soil, and will be provided by the Canadian Space Agency.

"CheMin: An X-ray Diffraction/X-ray Fluorescence instrument for definitive mineralogical analysis in the Analytical Laboratory of Mars Science Laboratory," David Blake, of NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Ca. CheMin, would identify and quantify all minerals in complex natural samples such as basalts, evaporites and soils, one of the principle objectives of Mars Science Laboratory.

"Radiation Assessment Detector," Donald Hassler, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Co. This instrument would characterize the broad spectrum of radiation at the surface of Mars, an essential precursor to human exploration of the planet. The instrument would be funded by the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters.

"Mars Descent Imager," Michael Malin, Malin Space Science Systems. The Mars Descent Imager is to be designed to produce high-resolution color-video imagery of the descent and landing phase, providing geological context information, as well as allowing for precise landing-site determination.

"Sample Analysis at Mars with an integrated suite consisting of a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer, and a tunable laser spectrometer," Paul Mahaffy, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. This instrument will perform mineral and atmospheric analyses, detect a wide range of organic compounds and perform stable isotope analyses of organics and noble gases.

The selected proposals -- which were among dozens submitted in response to the agency's "announcement of opportunity" last April -- will be funded to conduct preliminary design studies to determine how the instruments can be accommodated on the mobile platform, completed and delivered in a timeframe consistent with the mission schedule. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, is managing the MSL project for the NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C.