SPACE: WHERE ARE WE GOING? : NASA RECEIVES WIDESPREAD CONCEPTS FOR FUTURE MARS MISSIONS

Saturday, May 26, 2012

NASA RECEIVES WIDESPREAD CONCEPTS FOR FUTURE MARS MISSIONS

FROM: NASA
WASHINGTON -- NASA's call to scientists and engineers to help plan a
new strategy to explore Mars has resulted in almost double the amount
of expected submissions with unique and bold ideas.

About 400 concepts or abstracts were submitted to the Concepts and
Approaches for Mars Exploration Workshop in Houston, which was
organized to gather input for the reformulation of NASA's Mars
Exploration Program. Submissions came from individuals and teams that
included professional researchers, undergraduate and graduate
students, NASA centers, federal laboratories, industry, and
international partner organizations.

NASA is reformulating the Mars Exploration Program to be responsive to
high-priority science goals and President Obama's challenge of
sending humans to Mars orbit in the 2030s.

"This strong response sends a clear message that exploring Mars is
important to future exploration," said John Grunsfeld, associate
administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at the agency's
headquarters in Washington and an astrophysicist and astronaut. "The
challenge now will be to select the best ideas for the next phase."

Selected abstracts will be presented during a workshop June 12-14
hosted by the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston. Selectees are
now being invited to present and discuss concepts, options,
capabilities and innovations to advance Mars exploration. Workshop
discussion will help inform a strategy for exploration within
available resources beginning as early as 2018, and stretching into
the next decade and beyond. Proceedings will be streamed live online.

"Developing abstracts is very time consuming, requiring intense
preparation, and we appreciate the fabulous response," said Doug
McCuistion, director, NASA's Mars Exploration Program in Washington.
"Even though space is limited, to ensure transparency in the process
anyone can observe the scientific and engineering deliberations via
the Web."

Based on the abstracts selected, associated working groups will
consider the ideas and concepts in depth during the workshop.
Near-term ideas will be taken into consideration for early mission
planning in the 2018-2024 timeframe, while mid- to longer-term ideas
will inform program-level architecture planning for 2026 and beyond.

The Mars Program Planning Group (MPPG), tasked with developing options
for a reformulated Mars Exploration Program, will consider the
workshop inputs for the various options, taking into consideration
budgetary, programmatic, scientific, and technical constraints.

Options developed by the MPPG are expected to advance the science
objectives in the National Research Council's Planetary Science
Decadal Survey. The survey rated the return of Mars samples to Earth
as a top scientific goal. Developed in consultation with the
scientific and technical community, the MPPG report is expected to be
delivered for NASA review at the end of the summer.

The MPPG reports to Grunsfeld, who chairs the overall, agencywide
reformulation strategy along with William Gerstenmaier, associate
administrator for NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission
Directorate, NASA Chief Scientist Waleed Abdalati and NASA Chief
Technologist Mason Peck.

"Getting to Mars is hard," said Grunsfeld. "We've had successes and
losses, but the human spirit to continue exploring the Red Planet
prevails."

This August, NASA will land the Mars Science Laboratory, Curiosity, on
the planet's surface. This roving science laboratory will assess
whether Mars was or is today an environment able to support life. In
2013, NASA will launch the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution
(MAVEN) orbiter, the first mission devoted to understanding the
Martian upper atmosphere.

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STAR FLASH

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