Mars 2020 Rover Teleconference
NASA Discusses Mars 2020 Plans in July 9 Teleconference, NASA
“NASA will host a media teleconference at 3 p.m. EDT Tuesday, July 9 to provide details about a report that will help define science objectives for the agency’s next Mars rover.
The report, prepared by the Mars 2020 Science Definition Team (SDT) NASA appointed in January, is an early, crucial step in developing the mission and the rover’s prime science objectives.”
Every time another Mars mission game plan comes along I look for an experiment to test/verify automated production of oxygen and fuel from the atmosphere (as Robert Zubrin did on Earth so many years ago). Finally I see it listed in this report (in an appendix).
The single-page description concentrates on oxygen and only mentions fuel in passing. This suggests to me that they may still be overlooking one important possibility — production of not just rocket fuel, but also fuel(s) that can be used to power: 1) habitat heating/cooling equipment; 2) electrical power generators; 3) surface rovers; and 4) portable power supplies for long-term experiments/sensors (and probably other things as well).
If an integrated small-scale ISRU fuel extractor/power generator could be proven and developed it would open the door to a lot of possibilities for experiments and/or facilities to run long term and unattended. The first working unit of this type (on Mars) could be set running and left alone to record output stability and lifetime, so as to quantify its capabilities.
Note: The appendices to this report have information not mentioned in the main report. On the down side, their tables and diagrams are all pictures and their text is not searchable.