Mars Scout -11

cIclops · 2006-01-13 09:35:08

NASA have just released a new Mars Scout Mission of Opportunity document for *community comment* - the mission is capped at $475M and is to be launched before the end of 2011.

"Investigations proposed as Mars Scouts may include remote observations from Mars-orbiting spacecraft; missions that may deploy aerial or landed systems to study the Martian atmosphere, surface, interior, geopotential fields, and/or deep subsurface; sample return missions; or any other innovative approach to exploring and conducting scientific research at Mars." (Draft AO page 5)

SpaceRef story and links

Mars_B4_Moon · 2006-03-23 04:59:50

more good news for Mars

cIclops · 2007-01-09 03:15:57

NASA Selects Proposals for Future Mars Missions and Studies - Jan. 8, 2007

WASHINGTON - On Monday, NASA selected for concept study development two proposals for future robotic missions to Mars. These missions would increase understanding of Mars' atmosphere, climate and potential habitability in greater detail than ever before.
In addition, NASA also will fund a U.S. scientist to participate in a proposed European Mars mission as well as fund instrument technology studies that could lead to further contributions to future Mars missions.
"These mission selections represent unprecedented future research that will lead to further advancing our knowledge and understanding of the Red Planet's climate, and atmospheric composition," said Mary Cleave, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington.
Each Mars mission proposal will receive initial funding of approximately $2 million to conduct a nine-month implementation feasibility study. Following these detailed mission concept studies, NASA intends to select one of the two proposals by late 2007 for full development as a Mars Scout mission. The mission developed for flight would have a launch opportunity in 2011 and cost no more than $475 million.
The selected Mars mission proposals are:
* Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission, or MAVEN: The mission would provide first-of-its-kind measurements and address key questions about Mars climate and habitability and improve understanding of dynamic processes in the upper Martian atmosphere and ionosphere. The principal investigator is Bruce Jakosky, University of Colorado, Boulder. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., will provide project management.
* The Great Escape mission: The mission would directly determine the basic processes in Martian atmospheric evolution by measuring the structure and dynamics of the upper atmosphere. In addition, potentially biogenic atmospheric constituents such as methane would be measured. The principal investigator is Alan Stern, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado. Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, will provide project management.

The aeroplane project (ARES) has not been funded.

RedStreak · 2007-01-09 16:31:43

The two missions sound extremely alike, although I suspect MAVEN would be the more likely first-choice since it sounds more climate/biology oriented.

If I were a NASA manager I'd have to agree on turning down ARES - unless the plane can restart itself and be proven to fly in low air pressures it sounds exceedingly risky for a few hundred million dollars of investment. For an aerial mission I think the best investment would be a blimp/derigable project; a balloon is too easily wind-driven but a blimp could fly to select sites while simultainiously analyzing the Martian atmosphere - BIG science potential plus inflating the hydrogen for such a craft would give an opportunity to test propellant production.

cIclops · 2007-01-10 05:53:43

Yes these proposals fit in well with a future human Mars mission. One of the hard problems is landing large heavy packages on the surface, being able to characterize the atmosphere better will help a lot in designing the EDL system.

cIclops · 2007-01-10 05:56:17

CU-Boulder Proposal Selected As Finalist For Mission To Probe Past Climate Of Mars - Jan 8, 2007

NASA has selected a team led by the University of Colorado at Boulder as one of two finalists for an orbiting space mission slated to launch in 2011 to probe the past climate of Mars, including its potential for harboring life over the eons.
The team, led by CU-Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, will receive $2 million from NASA for a nine-month "Phase A" study for the proposed Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission, or MAVEN.
MAVEN was proposed as part of NASA's Scout Program, which has a cost cap of $475 million. The second proposal selected for further study is led by the Boulder office of the Southwest Research Institute, headquartered in San Antonio. The winning proposal is expected to be selected for flight in about one year.
The CU-Boulder proposal includes a spacecraft with 10 instruments that will focus on the upper atmosphere of Mars, said LASP Associate Director Bruce Jakosky, principal investigator for MAVEN. LASP would have overall responsibility for the mission, including providing two instruments and half of a third instrument. LASP also would provide science operations for the mission and managing the education and outreach program, he said.
Partners on the LASP proposal include NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., Lockheed Martin Corp. of Denver, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Michigan. Lockheed Martin would provide the spacecraft, as well as mission operations, for the MAVEN mission.
"We think we have proposed a first-rate mission with outstanding science and outstanding partners, and are extremely excited about the NASA announcement," said Jakosky, an internationally known Mars expert. "Scientists have a lot of questions about the loss of water and carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere over time, which have implications for the possibility of past or present life there."
LASP Director Daniel Baker, one of the science team members on MAVEN, described it as "a telescope-microscope mission that will allow scientists to piece together an entire picture of the Martian atmosphere. We want to better understand how the Mars atmosphere evolved, its present state, and what we might see happening there in the future," he said.
The MAVEN science team includes three LASP scientists heading instrument teams -- Nicholas Schneider, Frank Eparvier and Robert Ergun -- as well as a large supporting team of scientists, engineers and mission operations specialists.
If selected for flight, MAVEN would include participation by a number of CU-Boulder graduate and undergraduate students in the coming years, said LASP faculty member Fran Bagenal, a member of the MAVEN science team. Currently there are more than 100 undergraduate and graduate students working on research projects at LASP, providing training for future careers as engineers and scientists, she said.
The MAVEN effort also would bring together undergraduate data teams from across the nation to help analyze mission results, Baker said.
Multiple lines of evidence suggest that Mars lost most of its atmosphere several billion years ago, said Jakosky. The MAVEN orbiter would study current atmospheric loss with emphasis on the role of the solar wind, including its rapidly moving charged particles and magnetic field that may be responsible in large part for the current atmospheric conditions on the Red Planet, he said.
NASA's Mars Exploration Program was designed to help characterize and understand Mars as a dynamic system, including its present and past environment, climate cycles, geology and biological potential. The Mars Exploration Program is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

cIclops · 2007-02-20 23:16:33

Concept Study Overview (PDF) - 25 Jan 2007

Timeline
January 19, 2007 Funding for Phase A
October 19, 2007 Deliver Concept Study Reports
Nov/Dec 2007 CSR evaluation & site visits
January 2008 Downselect to one mission
January 2008 Start Phase B
September 2008 Confirmation process (notional)
October 2008 Start Phase C/D (notional)
October 2011 Launch window opens

cIclops · 2007-03-10 06:38:07

Levine Named Mars Scout Scientist

Langley senior research scientist, Joel S. Levine, has been named the Mars Scout Program Scientist for the newly selected Scout mission launching in 2011. Levine is in the Langley Science Directorate.

Maybe he wants to fly that ARES model aircraft onboard the Mars Scout mission

cIclops · 2007-12-21 12:18:13

NASA Delays Mars Scout Mission to 2013 - 21 Dec 2007

WASHINGTON - NASA announced today that the next mission in the Mars Scout program, originally planned for launch in 2011, is now targeted for launch in 2013. The schedule slip is because of an organizational conflict of interest that was discovered in one of the mission proposal team's Phase A Concept Study. This was the shortest delay for the mission possible because opportunities to send spacecraft to Mars occur only once every 26 months.
NASA will fund current proposals to meet a new launch date in 2013. Revised proposals will be due in August 2008, and the evaluation and selection will take place in December 2008.
In November, NASA postponed the Scout mission's evaluation, selection, and announcement so the agency could resolve an organizational conflict of interest. The conflict of interest was discovered shortly after the concept study reports were received.
The extent of the conflict was severe enough that NASA determined its only recourse was to stop the evaluation and reconstitute the entire review panel that provides the technical and cost analyses for mission selections.
"The panel's independent expertise and evaluation are critical to maintaining a fair and competitive mission selection process," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington. "This was a difficult decision, but necessary to preserve the integrity of the process, while ensuring we have adequate resources for the mission we ultimately select."
The delay in selection, resulting from reconstituting the entire review team and replanning the evaluation schedule, is approximately four months. Because of the delay, proposers would be left an unacceptable schedule, and schedule reserve, to meet a targeted launch date of 2011. Changing the launch date to the next Mars opportunity in 2013 reestablishes an acceptable and achievable schedule for the mission.
"We regret the delay, but NASA is taking this step to be proactive in preventing problems early on," said Mars Exploration Program Director Doug McCuistion, NASA Headquarters. "Because these are cost-capped missions, it is better to address the schedule risk now rather than put the winning proposer at a cost and schedule disadvantage from the start. Delaying the next Scout mission and allowing the mission teams to replan their proposed missions for 2013 reestablishes an acceptable schedule to meet a Mars launch date. It will also reduce the risk of cost overruns driven by the tight mission schedule that would have resulted if launch had remained in 2011."
In the first round of the Mars Scout 2006 competition, two missions for 2011 originally selected from 26 proposals for further evaluation in a concept study phase. The selected missions were the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN mission, or MAVEN and the The Great Escape, or TGE, mission. The principal investigator for MAVEN is Bruce Jakosky, University of Colorado, Boulder. The TGE principal investigator is Jim Burch, Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio. Both missions would provide similar measurements of Mars' upper atmosphere, including its dynamics and evolution, which have been given a high priority by the scientific community.

Curious blunder. Does MSO also launch in 2013?

RedStreak · 2007-12-21 14:08:20

Ugh...I hate it when bureacratic BS mucks things up. :x

EuroLauncher · 2007-12-23 04:51:52

So it will be delayed by at least 2 years ?

I fear if they miss any more windows NASA scout program might soon be dead

cIclops · 2007-12-24 05:38:25

So it will be delayed by at least 2 years ?

Yes.

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#1 2006-01-13 09:35:08

Re: Mars Scout -11

#2 2006-03-23 04:59:50

Re: Mars Scout -11

#3 2007-01-09 03:15:57

Re: Mars Scout -11

#4 2007-01-09 16:31:43

Re: Mars Scout -11

#5 2007-01-10 05:53:43

Re: Mars Scout -11

#6 2007-01-10 05:56:17

Re: Mars Scout -11

#7 2007-02-20 23:16:33

Re: Mars Scout -11

#8 2007-03-10 06:38:07

Re: Mars Scout -11

#9 2007-12-21 12:18:13

Re: Mars Scout -11

#10 2007-12-21 14:08:20

Re: Mars Scout -11

#11 2007-12-23 04:51:52

Re: Mars Scout -11

#12 2007-12-24 05:38:25

Re: Mars Scout -11

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