page_title: Next Mars Orbiter
section_title: Features
hierarchical_section_title: Next Mars Orbiter / Features
caption_attribution_description: Image of a Hall thruster in operation. I took this photo and claim no copyright.
context_page_description: The Next Mars Orbiter is a proposed NASA Mars communications satellite with high-resolution imaging payload and two solar-electric ion thrusters.
  The orbiter was initially proposed to be launched in September 2022 to link ground controllers with rovers and landers and extend mapping capabilities expected to be lost when the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and 2001 Mars Odyssey stop functioning, but officials elected to focus on flying the Perseverance rover first to cache various samples for a later sample-return mission that will incorporate a Mars telecom orbiter, now envisioned for the late 2020s.
context_section_description: Key features under study include solar electric ion drive engines, better solar arrays, and broadband laser communications (optic communication) between Earth and Mars.
  The orbiter is conceptually similar to the Mars Telecommunications Orbiter, canceled in 2005, and could be a technology precursor for a future round-trip sample return mission and human expeditions to Mars. Robert Lock is leading the concept studies for the 2022 orbiter.
  Concern in NASA is that the currently used relay satellites, 2001 Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, may stop functioning, resulting in the need to press the MAVEN science orbiter into use as a backup telecommunications relay. Since the highly elliptical orbit of MAVEN limits its usefulness as a relay for surface operations, NASA will lower its orbit from 6,200 (3,900) to between 4,000 and 4,500 kilometers (2,500 and 2,800 mi) altitude, where it can serve as a relay while continuing its science mission.
  Another suggested feature under study is "the sample rendezvous capture and return capability". The samples cached by the Mars 2020 rover would be placed in Mars orbit by a future Mars ascent vehicle. From there, the orbiter would rendezvous, transfer the samples into a capsule and send it back to Earth.
caption: 2 kW Ion thruster in operation as part of the Hall Thruster Experiment at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
exif: {}