NASA Facts National Aeronautics and Space…

NASA Facts   National Aeronautics and
             Space Administration

             Jet Propulsion Laboratory
             California Institute of Technology
             Pasadena, Calif. 91109




             Mars Science Laboratory
             NASA is developing a 2009 Mars mission       payload more than 10 times as massive
             to set down a sophisticated, large, mobile   as those of earlier Mars rovers. Its mis-
             laboratory using a precision landing that    sion: investigate the past or present
             will make many of Mars' most intriguing      potential of Mars to support microbial life.
             regions viable destinations for the first
             time. Once on the ground, the Mars           Mission Overview
             Science Laboratory would analyze dozens      Plans for the Mars Science Laboratory call
             of samples scooped from the soil and         for launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force
             cored from rocks as it explores with         Station, Florida, in September or October
             greater range than any previous Mars         2009 and arrival at Mars in summer 2010.
             rover.
                                                          The spacecraft is being designed to steer
             As planned, the robotic laboratory will      itself during descent through Mars' atmos-
             carry the most advanced payload of scien-    phere with a series of S-curve maneuvers
             tific gear ever used on Mars' surface, a     similar to those used by astronauts pilot-
ing NASA space shuttles. During the 3         Research objectives
minutes before touchdown the spacecraft       The overarching science goal of the mis-
would slow its descent with a parachute,      sion is to assess whether the landing area
then use retro rockets mounted around         ever had or still has environmental condi-
the rim of an upper stage for the final 500   tions favorable to microbial life.
meters (1,640 feet) of the descent. In the
final seconds, the hovering upper stage       The investigations to support that assess-
would act as a sky crane, lowering the        ment include:
upright rover on a tether to the surface.
                                                Detecting and identifying any organic
As envisioned, the mobile laboratory itself   carbon compounds.
will be about twice as long (about 2.8
meters or 9 feet) and four times as heavy        Making an inventory of the key building
as NASA's twin Mars Exploration Rovers        blocks of life.
launched in 2003. It would inherit some
design elements from them, including six-        Identifying features that may represent
wheel drive, a rocker-bogie suspension        effects of biological processes.
system and cameras mounted on a mast
to help the mission's Earthbound humans
                                                 Examining rocks and soils at and near
select exploration targets and driving
                                              the surface to interpret the processes that
routes. Unlike earlier rovers, Mars Science
Laboratory is being designed to carry         formed and modified them.
equipment to gather samples of rocks and
soil, crush them and distribute them to         Assessing how Mars' atmosphere has
onboard test chambers inside analytical       changed over billions of years.
instruments.
                                                Determining current distribution and
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,             cycles of water and carbon dioxide,
Pasadena, Calif., builder of the Mars         whether frozen, liquid or gaseous.
Science Laboratory, is engineering the
rover to roll over obstacles up to 65 cen-    NASA will identify a Mars Science
timeters (25 inches) high and to travel up    Laboratory landing site with characteristics
to about 200 meters (660 feet) per day on     believed to make it among the most likely
martian terrain.                              sites on the planet to have retained clues
                                              to the presence of liquid water, a condition
NASA is considering nuclear energy for        favorable to life. The site will also need to
powering the Mars Science Laboratory.         meet criteria making it suitable for a safe
The rover would carry a U.S. Department       landing.
of Energy radioisotope power supply that
would generate electricity from the heat of   Selection of a landing site of prime scien-
plutonium's radioactive decay. This type of   tific interest will benefit from examining
power supply could give the mission an        candidate sites with NASA's Mars
operating lifespan on Mars' surface of a      Reconnaissance Orbiter beginning in
full Mars year (687 Earth days) or more.      2006, from earlier orbiters' observations,
NASA is also considering solar power          and from a planned capability of landing
alternatives that could meet the mission's    within a target area only about 20 kilome-
science and mobility objectives.              ters (12 miles) long. That precision, about
                                              a five-fold improvement on earlier Mars
The mission is being designed to use          landings, will make feasible sites that
radio relays via Mars orbiters as the prin-   would otherwise be excluded for encom-
cipal means of communication between          passing nearby unsuitable terrain. For
the Mars Science Laboratory and Earth.        example, the mission could go to the floor
                                              of a small crater or wide canyon whose
steep walls would make a less precise           investigator is Dr. David Blake of NASA's
landing too risky.                              Ames Research Center, Moffett Field,
                                                Calif.
Mission plans also call for the capability of
landing at much higher altitudes and lati-      Mounted on the arm, the Mars Hand Lens
tudes than earlier Mars rovers. That gives      Imager would take extreme close-up pic-
the advantage of making about three-            tures of rocks, soil and, if present, ice,
fourths of Mars' surface accessible, more       revealing details smaller than the width of
than 10 times as much as considered             a human hair. It will also be able to focus
accessible for the Mars Exploration Rover       on hard-to-reach objects more than an
Project.                                        arm's length away. The principal investiga-
                                                tor is Dr. Kenneth Edgett of Malin Space
Advancing the technologies for precision        Science Systems, San Diego, Calif.
landing of a heavy payload will yield
research benefits beyond the returns from       Also on the arm, the Alpha Particle X-ray
Mars Science Laboratory itself. Those           Spectrometer for Mars Science Laboratory
same capabilities would be important for        would determine the relative abundances
later missions both to pick up rocks on         of different elements in rocks and soils.
Mars and bring them back to Earth and
                                                Dr. Ralf Gellert of the University of
conduct extensive surface exploration for
                                                Guelph, Ontario, Canada, is principal
martian life.
                                                investigator for this instrument, which will
                                                be provided by the Canadian Space
Science Payload
                                                Agency.
In April 2004, NASA solicited proposals for
specific instruments and investigations to
                                                The Mars Science Laboratory Mast
be carried by Mars Science Laboratory.
                                                Camera, mounted at about human-eye
The agency selected eight of the propos-
                                                height, would image the rover's surround-
als later that year and also reached
agreements with Russia and Spain for            ings in high-resolution stereo and color,
carrying instruments those nations will         with a zoom-telephoto lens and the capa-
provide.                                        bility to take and store high-definition
                                                video sequences. It would also be used
A suite of instruments named Sample             for viewing materials collected or treated
Analysis at Mars would analyze samples          by the arm. The principal investigator is
of material collected and delivered by the      Dr. Michael Malin of Malin Space Science
rover's arm. It includes a gas chromato-        Systems.
graph, a mass spectrometer and a tunable
laser spectrometer with combined capabil-       An instrument named ChemCam would
ities to identify a wide range of organic       use laser pulses to vaporize thin layers of
(carbon-containing) compounds and deter-        material from martian rocks or soil targets
mine the ratios of different isotopes of key    up to 10 meters (33 feet) away. It will
elements. Isotope ratios are clues to           include both a spectrometer to identify the
understanding the history of Mars' atmos-       types of atoms excited by the beam and a
phere and water. The principal investigator     telescope to capture detailed images of
is Dr. Paul Mahaffy of NASA's Goddard           the area illuminated by the beam. The
Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.             laser and telescope sit on the rover's mast
                                                and would share with the Mast Camera
An X-ray diffraction and fluorescence           the role of informing researchers' choices
instrument called CheMin would also             about which objects in the area make the
examine samples gathered by the robotic         best targets for approaching to examine
arm. It is designed to identify and quantify    with other instruments. Dr. Roger Wiens
the minerals in rocks and soils, and to         of Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los
measure bulk composition. The principal         Alamos, N.M., is the principal investigator.
The rover's Radiation Assessment                 gen up to one meter (three feet) below the
Detector would characterize the radiation        surface. Detections of hydrogen may indi-
environment at the surface of Mars. This         cate the presence of water in the form of
information is necessary for planning            ice or bound in minerals. Dr. Igor
human exploration of Mars and relevant to        Mitrofanov of the Space Research
assessing the planet's ability to harbor life.   Institute, Moscow, is the principal investi-
The principal investigator is Dr. Donald         gator.
Hassler of Southwest Research Institute,
Boulder, Colo.                                   In addition to the science payload, equip-
                                                 ment of the rover's engineering infrastruc-
The Mars Descent Imager would finish its         ture would contribute to scientific observa-
job in the seconds before landing, captur-       tions. Like the Mars Exploration Rovers,
ing color high-definition video of the land-     Mars Science Laboratory will have a
ing region during the descent to provide         stereo navigation camera on its mast and
                                                 low-slung, stereo hazard-avoidance cam-
geological context for the investigations
                                                 eras. Equipment called the Sample
on the ground and aiding precise determi-
                                                 Acquisition/Sample Preparation and
nation of the landing site. Dr. Michael
                                                 Handling System will include the robotic
Malin is principal investigator.
                                                 arm with tools to grind off rock coatings,
                                                 collect core samples of rocks and scoop
Spain's Ministry of Education and Science
                                                 up soil, plus deck-mounted devices to
is providing the Rover Environmental             crush and distribute collected samples.
Monitoring Station to measure atmospher-
ic pressure, temperature, humidity, winds,       Program/Project Management
plus ultraviolet radiation levels. The princi-   The Mars Science Laboratory is managed
pal investigator is Dr. Luis Vázquez of the      for NASA's Science Mission Directorate,
Center for Astrobiology, Madrid, an inter-       Washington, D.C., by JPL, a division of
national partner of the NASA Astrobiology        the California Institute of Technology,
Institute. The team for this investigation       Pasadena. At NASA Headquarters, Mark
includes the Finnish Meteorological              Dahl is the Mars Science Laboratory pro-
Institute as a partner.                          gram executive and Dr. Michael Meyer is
                                                 program scientist. In Pasadena, Richard
Russia's Federal Space Agency is provid-         Cook of JPL is project manager and Dr.
ing the Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons               Edward Stolper of Caltech is project
instrument to measure subsurface hydro-          scientist.




                                                                                         8-06