MSL landing Site Workshop

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MSL landing Site Workshop

• Michael Meyer
• 31 May 2006

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Where We AreRight Now
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The Near-Future Program

• Mission Priorities
• Orbital asset maintenance and MRO
• MSL 2009
• Phoenix 2007
• Scout Program and Scout-11
• Draft AO released
• Award up to three 9 month Phase As in October
  2006
• Downselect before October 2007
• 12 month Phase B
• 36 month Phase C/D
• MoO included, avenue for international
  collaboration
• If gt12 month orbiter, must also serve as telecom
  relay
• Continue successful orbiter-lander
  interconnection
• Maintain telecomm infrastructure through
  scientific orbiters
• Continue public, educational and international
  exposure
• Opportunistic measurements for human exploration
  of Mars

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Where We Are Now
The Presidents proposed FY07 budget to Congress

• Program funding expected to remains slightly
  below the FY05 budget level
• Growth rate capped at 1.0-1.2
• Operating Missions reduced
• All Program Management elements reduced
• E/PO
• Reserves
• Other Program elements
• Technology significantly reduced
• Scout AO MoO available funding reduced

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Summary MEP Status

• Outstanding science has been, and will continue
  to be done, however
• We are likely to remain in a challenging
  resources environment
• The Presidents budget has not yet been approved
• MSL is critical to establishing the next decade
• Keep it in 09 or possibly lose it
• Missions past 16 are dependent on future budget
  and discoveries
• Overall, the program is fragile
• Any demands for additional funds must come from
  something else in the Program
• Technology is at a critical juncture2013/2016
  focus only
• International collaboration can open
  opportunities to enhance this portfolio of
  missions
• Human Exploration linkage needs to be maintained
  in support of the Vision

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Mars Science Laboratory
Design Concept
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MSL Landing Site Workshop
The purpose of the Landing Site workshop is to
identify and evaluate potential landing sites
best suited to achieving stated mission science
objectives within the constraints imposed by
engineering requirements, planetary protection
requirements, and the necessity of ensuring a
safe landing.

• Assess the biological potential of at least one
  target environment identified prior to MSL or
  discovered by MSL.
• Characterize the geology of the landing region at
  all appropriate spatial scales (i.e., ranging
  from micrometers to meters).
• Investigate planetary processes of relevance to
  past habitability, including the role of water
• Characterize the broad-spectrum of the surface
  radiation environment, including galactic cosmic
  radiation, solar proton events, and secondary
  neutrons

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MSL Landing Site Workshop

• Why a workshop?
• Ensure we have the full and diverse input from
  the scientific community to derive the most
  scientifically compelling landing sites . . .
  that are within the engineering constraints.
• Use the knowledge of the scientific community to
  determine the degree to which a landing site is
  safe.
• Provide the opportunity for a rapid dissemination
  of new ideas and discoveries, and their relative
  importance concerning where to go on Mars

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Science Payload
ChemCam
Remote Sensing (Mast) ChemCam Laser Induced
Breakdown Spectrometer (chemical
composition/imaging) MastCam - Color Stereo
Imager Contact Instruments (Arm) MAHLI -
Microscopic Imager APXS - Proton/X-ray
Backscatter Spectrometer (chemical
composition) Analytical Laboratory (Front
Chassis) SAM - Gas Chromatograph/Mass
Spectrometer/ Tunable Laser Spectrometer
(sample composition/organics
detection/isotopes) CheMin - X-ray Diffraction /
Florescence (sample mineralogy/chemical
composition)
REMS
MastCam
RAD
SAM
DAN
CheMin
MARDI
APXS
MAHLI
Design Concept
Environmental Characterization (Body-mount) MARDI
- Descent Imager REMS - Meteorological
monitoring RAD - Surface Radiation Flux
Monitor DAN - Neutron backscatter subsurface
hydrogen (water/ice) detection
- Foreign Contribution - ESMD Contribution
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First Light for MROs HiRISE
Argyre region March 24, 2006 2489km altitude 50km
x 24km Image 20,000 pixels 2.5 m/pixel
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CRISM Improved Spatial Spectral Resolution
CRISM targeted hyperspectral (20 m/pixel, 7
nm/ch) characterizes deposits
OMEGA (300-1000 m/pixel,13 nm/ch.) discovers
large deposits
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MSL Capstone Mission
At the threshold of the next decade, MSL will
assess whether Mars could have been conducive for
life, and set the pathway for future exploration

• MSL will be the first roving platform to
• Characterize discovered organics
• Perform definitive mineralogy
• Measure surface radiation, concomitant in space
  (Odyssey) also of relevance to human exploration
• As demonstrated by MER, mobility will enable
  measurement of lateral regional heterogeneity of
  minerals and organic compounds, central to
  understanding the potential habitability of Mars.
• MRO orbital, global geologic measurements will be
  ground-truthed by MSL through local surface
  remote sensing and in situ measurements