Mars Rover 2020 Science Definition Team Report
Science Team Outlines Goals for NASA’s 2020 Mars Rover, NASA
– Report of the Mars 2020 Science Definition Team (PDF), NASA
– Appendices (PDF)
– Audio of today’s teleconference (MP3)
“The Mars 2020 Science Definition Team (SDT) has outlined a mission concept for a science-focused, highly mobile rover to explore and investigate in detail a site on Mars that likely was once habitable. The SDT-preferred mission concept employs new in situ scientific instrumentation in order to seek signs of past life (had it been there), select and store a compelling suite of samples in a returnable cache, and demonstrate technology for future robotic and human exploration of Mars. The mission concept fully addresses the requirements specified by NASA in the SDT charter while also ensuring alignment with the recommendations of the National Academy of Sciences Decadal Survey for Planetary Science (Visions and Voyages, 2011).
Key features of the integrated science mission concept include:
– Broad and rigorous in situ science, including seeking biosignatures
– Acquiring a diverse set of samples intended to address a range of Mars science questions and storing them in a cache for potential return to Earth at a later time
– Improved landing technology to allow unprecedented access to scientifically compelling geological sites
– Collection of critical data needed to plan for eventual human missions to the martian surface
– Maximizing engineering heritage from NASA’s successful Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission to constrain costs”
“The chartering document of the 2020 Mars Rover Science Definition Team (SDT) contains a clear rationale to continue the pursuit of NASA’s plans for “Seeking the Signs of Life”. It also calls for a mission that enables concrete progress toward sample return, thereby satisfying the Planetary Decadal Survey science recommendation for the highest priority large mission for the decade 2013-2022. Combined with the intent to make progress toward future human exploration of Mars, the formal SDT charter presents a set of four primary objectives:
A. Explore an astrobiologically relevant ancient environment on Mars to decipher its geological processes and history, including the assessment of past habitability.
B. Assess the biosignature preservation potential within the selected geological environment and search for potential biosignatures.
C. Demonstrate significant technical progress towards the future return of scientifically
selected, well-documented samples to Earth.
D. Provide an opportunity for contributed Human Exploration & Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD) or Space Technology Program (STP) participation, compatible with the science payload and within the mission’s payload capacity.“
How big/heavy would a Methane/O2 generator be?
Of what use would a methane or O2 generation system be?
As a technology demonstrator.
Politicians won’t believe anything ‘till they see it with
their own eyes.
We’ll have to keep “proving” there’s water on Mars until we can send a Charlie the Bartender robot to mix up a scotch & water for all theworld to see.
A sabatier reactor to fuel-up a small, rocket powered “hopper” dropped off by the MSL-2020 would be a game changer. I personally think it could be done within reasonable mass & volume constraints, but probably not
financial constraints.
The CO2 capture demo on MSL-2020 will weigh about 22-44
pounds and uses about 50-150 W of power. All-in-all an impressive piece of hardware/mass that is “just” a demo unit for future crewed mission technology, many planetary science guys will be grinding their teeth at this.
The sabatier reactor system on the ISS (sort of a reverse
version of what you’re talking about) weighs about 800 pounds (depending on how you account for power, cooling and other related subsystems) and takes up most of a rack.
A full CH4/O2 generator demo on MSL-2020 would weigh too
much and take up too much space to be accepted by the science community, but the CO2 capture demo is a good start to look into the dust ingestion/mitigation problems.
Betcha a dollar it won’t use the skycrane landing system.
If this vehicle is of a similar size and weight to MSL, do you have a better approach in mind? If you do, I bet the guys at JPL would love to hear from you.
Skycrane is baselined for landing– the whole system is specified as being a rebuild of the Curiosity system, since they’re not being funded to do a new design.
Cool sketch… Was it done by hand on an old drafting board or are there CAD programs that can do this today? When I was working in the early 60s there were design engineers and draftsmen, from the 40s and 50s, who could create master pieces by hand. As a retired stress engineer, I and my associates were required to sketch up free bodies by hand and place the applied loads and reactions on the sketches. Today a lot of the kids, oops young engineers, coming out of colleges have no idea how to do this. Everything is done on computers and understanding classical hand stress analysis has been lost. That’s just IMHO.
CAD program.
In drawing mode it’s easy to change the paper & line colors, then output to Adobe Illustrator format and use Illustrator’s filter tools to add some grain noise and a motion-blur layer (then fade) for that “old time” look.
Understanding how to calculate static and dynamic loading is still taught and is still an integral part of an engineer’s education. Students studying today benefit from having much more powerful tools at their disposal.
I’d like a bunker busting missile fired at the surface of Mars followed by a mesh network of multiple sensor bots climbing down the hole and through the debris. It would be a better use of time to make a fresh 100ft deep crater and then immediately there after check the rocks. Waiting for a filmed impact of a meteor, then staging a launch is ineffective, the probes must be in place, and redundant, after the target area is explosively drilled the already staged probes would go to work within hours or mins of detonation. I’d like to see into mars or gain access to caves and or lava tubes, more surface only missions are not doing the job fast enough, if we do send more rovers, they need to have ground penetrating radar and the capability to do analysis of underground rock strata. I’d be more impressed if we sent 10 automated D-8 Cats and really started to move some earth, perhaps even prepared an eventual base site. The not in your lifetime line needs to end, the current workforce needs to be doing the job not some pipe dream next generation… most of the know how is starting to retire!