http://www.marstoday.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=20314

I also have inside word that at least one proposal will involve a Phoenix-type lander with a mini-rover, although this is hardly surprising -- and whether they can fit such a craft convincingly inside even the newly raised Scout cost cap if they have to build the lander from scratch is open to question.

I struggle to imagine that the physical hardware carried over from Mars '01 to Phoenix is actually that much of a saving to the budget - particularly given the huge ammount of testing and review it's undergone. The savings to be had if you build-from-print for another similar lander would probably mean it's doable under a scout budget given any leasons learnt from the Phoenix mission - Of course, would you want to give a 'yes' to another '01 platform mission without seing Phoenix work first?

'01 lander with a microrover....it's the APEX mission all over again.

Doug

Unless they want to kind of "pathfind" something new but I hardly imagine what.

Do you suppose it is even remotely possible to talk NASA into taking another stab (pardon the pun) at Penetrators? Deep Space2 was a big flop, but everyone agreed that 25 million was just too small a budget to have stood a chance.

Or what about mini-hard landers? AKA ... landers that only have parachutes for braking, with the expectation that the craft will strike the ground at a fairly high speed, but not be a penetrator.


Hmmm.... sounds like I'm suggesting either a follow on to Deep Space 2, or a follow up to Beagle. Which is probably political suicide, but I think both ideas were valid, just underfunded.

I think words like 'Mars-96' and Netlander might repay some Googling!

Bob Shaw

AO has been released

http://nspires.nasaprs.com/external/solici...27C0}&path=open

The Mars Scout AO is not for Phoenix but for another project, after Phoenix. Below are the schedules that goes beyond the year 2008. Aren't it?


Rodolfo

If you are looking for a cheap system, this is premature. Our experience with the MER's tells us we lack more than a fledgeling understanding of the descent and entry process: We need a fully instrumented trip through the atmosphere with a wide enough safety margin to return the data. This is more important, right now, than any surface or subsurface science.

I agree that the EDL is the most difficult part of any Mars mission. Missing a second is unforgiven. So, building a robust EDL system implies many factors and get an exact measures of timing, weight, density, velocity, shape, angle, plainess and slope degree of surface and finally inside of an ellipse. After any success, everybody cheer up intensely. Then, later, the things will rarely happen again unless any a big discover or confirmation.

Rodolfo

A fairly detailed description of one 2011 Mars Scout proposal from the Ames Research Center news site ( http://www-space.arc.nasa.gov/news.cfm ):

__________________________________________

Robert Haberle participated in a 3-day ATLAS (Atmospheric Transport Limb and Surface) Mars Scout Mission science team meeting that was held at APL the last week in April. ATLAS launches in late October 2011, arrives at Mars in early September of 2012, then aerobrakes for 5 months to achieve a high inclination (74o), precessing (52 Mars days per 180o rotation), circular (400 km) orbit. It operates for 2 Earth Years. The payload (and providers) consists of:

Fabry Perot Wind Sensor (APL)

IR Limb Profiler (LaRC)

3-Color Camera (Malin Space Science Systems)

Energy Balance Bolometer (ARC)

Trace Gas Mapper (CNRS - France)

Solar Activity Monitor (Student Experiment - Virginia Tech)


He reports that "At the meeting we finalized the science objectives, which briefly are:

(1) Explore the Martian Winds, the missing element in the climate system.

(2) Understand how these winds transport dust and volatiles around the planet the implication for their surface sources and sinks.

(3) Measure the global energy balance and its implication for atmospheric transport.

(4) Quantify the abundance and spatial distribution of trace gases with different lifetimes and their implications for transport, atmospheric evolution, and life."

__________________________________

However, virtually all of this mission's goals have now been absorbed into the larger 2013 Mars Science and Telecom Orbiter, which will focus on just such atmospheric studies.

There was another proposal for the 2001 lander, called Urey, I think, that would have had the lander carry rock dating material, and used the microrover to go fetch samples for it to date. Perhaps this is what they had in mind.