# Presentation: 067007

## Mars:Rovers & Future Missions

**Mars:****Rovers & Future Missions**

- Roger C. Wiens
- LASSO Presentation
- 2008

## Outline

- Mars Missions & Measurement Techniques
- Historical Background
- Present and Future Missions
- Instrumentation
- Summary, Q&A

## Early Missions

- Mariner 4, 1965 Flyby
- Mars 2, 1971, Russian Crash-Land
- Mariner 9, 1971, Orbited and Returned Mapping Images

- 1976:  Vikings
- 2 Landers as Well as Orbital Image Data
- Landers Were Equipped With Geochemistry, Meteorological, Atmospheric, and Biological Experiments

## Viking Results

- Geochemistry
- Sampling Arms Grabbed Soil Samples For Analysis
- Mars Soils Found to be High in Sulfur and Chlorine
- Soil & Small Rock Compositions Suggested Basaltic Rocks
- Soil Compositions Similar at Both Sites
- Exobiology
- Experiments Designed to Test For Oxygen Uptake Indicated That Soils Gave Off Oxygen!
- “Superoxide” Reactive Soils Thought to be Due to UV Radiation
- Result Was a Surprise, but Suggested Soils Were Inhospitable For Life

## Mars Pathfinder

- 1996 Technology Demonstration Mission
- “Faster, Better, Cheaper Mission Followed Loss of $1B Mars Observer Orbiter Mission
- Captured the Public Imagination
- Obtained Geochemistry and Meteorological Information

## Mars Global Surveyor

- Reflight of Some Mars Observer Instruments
- Still Operating Since 1996 Launch
- Fantastic Images Down to ~1.5 m Resolution
- Magnetic Data Shown Earlier
- Thermal Emission Spectra Indicating Magnetite and Other Rock Types in Areas Previously Unknown

## Failed 1998 Missions

- Mars Climate Orbiter
- Reflight of Climate-Related Instruments from Mars Observer
- Orbit Insertion Off By 30 km; Satellite Burned Up in the Atmosphere
- Mars Polar Lander
- To Study Layered Terrain Near Polar Cap
- Had a Camera, a Small Drill, & Environment Instruments
- Crash-Landed Due to Early Engine Cut-Off
- DS-2 Penetrators
- 2 Hard-Landing Penetrators With Subsurface Temperature, Volatiles Experiment
- Never Heard From; Cause Unknown

## Mars Odyssey ‘01 Orbiter

- Reflight of Mars Observer Instruments
- Gamma-Ray, Neutron Spectrometers
- Near-Surface Water
- Surface Compositions
- Neutron Spectrometer
- 	Built at LANL

## Mars Exploration Rover (MER)

## Slide 11

## Spirit Rover Traverse

- Opportunity Rover

**Hematite**

## Eagle Crater—Hole in One

**Hematite**

## Hematite Blueberries

## Opportunity Rover Traverse

- Endurance
- Crater

- Erebus
- Crater

- Victoria
- Crater

- Eagle
- Crater

## Opportunity Rover (MER-B)Burn’s Cliffs, Endurance Crater, Mars

- Opportunity Rover (MER-B)Burn’s Cliffs, Endurance Crater, Mars

## Layered scarp at Endurance Crater

## Good Dunes / Bad Dunes

## Getting Unstuck

## Mars Express (2003)

- European Space Agency Mission
- Orbiter Carries Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) & Imagers
- GPR to Show Extent of Underground Ice & Water Down to ~100 km
- Lander (“Beagle 2”) to Carry Organic Experiments
- Equipped With a “Mole” to Retrieve Samples From Under Rocks
- Landing Failed

## Sulfates are found throughout Valles Marineris typically in light-toned layered deposits

- OMEGA Albedo

- MOLA

## Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)

- Spy Satellite Technology
- Image Resolution to ~20” on the Surface
- Launched in 2005, started orbiting Mars in 2006

## Phoenix Mission – Digging for Ice and Organics

**Phoenix Mission – Digging for Ice and Organics**

**2007**

## 2009 Mars Science Laboratory Rover

## Rovers Compared

## MSL Rover

## Sky Crane Landing Concept

## MSL Investigations

- Sample Anlysis at Mars (SAM)
- Sample Ovens and Mass Spectrometers
- CheMin, X-Ray Diffraction / X-Ray Fluorescence
- Alpha-Proton X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS)
- Improved from MER and Pathfinder
- MAHLI, Microscopic Imager
- Stereo Mast Camera, Descent Imager
- Stereo Camera Zooms 6-60o FOV;
- Descent Imager For Landing Site Context

***In-Situ***

***Contact***

## MSL Investigations

- Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD)
- Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS)
- Weather Station, Supplied by Spain
- Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons
- 	(DAN)
- From Russia
- Uses Pulsed Neutron
- 	 Source to Search for Water

## ChemCam

## LIBS Remote Dust Removal

- Remote Sensing on MER Requires
- the RAT to First Brush the Rock Off
- Before Mini-TES Can Analyze the Rock

- Dust Removed by 50 Laser Pulses at a
- Distance of 5.3 m (16 ft)

- Depth Profiling into the Rock
- From a Distance of 5.3 m
- Using Several Thousand
- Laser Pulses

**MER**

**LIBS**

**LIBS**

## Future Scout Missions:  SCIM?

- _S_ample _C_ollection for _I_nvestigation of _M_ars
- Collects Dust and Gas During High Speed Aeropass
- Drops to 37 km Altitude at Mach 25
- Uses Aerogel to Collect Mars Dust
- Collects 1 Liter of Mars Atmosphere
- Returns Samples To Earth

- Earth
- Return
- Capsule

## ARES Mars Airplane

## Mars Sample Return