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The Next Step in Exploring the Mars

ESA and the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) will be co-hosting, in cooperation with NASA and the International Mars Exploration Working Group (IMEWG), an International Conference on 9 and 10 July in the Auditorium of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris* to discuss the next step in the exploration of Mars.

We are still collecting data under NASA’s Phoenix, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Exploration Rover and Mars Odyssey missions, as well as under ESA’s Mars Express mission, as we prepare for even more exciting missions to come, notably NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory and ESA’s ExoMars. Mars exploration is continuing at a steady pace and future missions will integrate scientific payloads and technologies that will eventually serve the ultimate goal of carrying out a manned mission to Mars.

The international community has for a long time agreed that the next imperative step, one which will exponentially increase our knowledge and understanding of the Red Planet and its environment, is a Sample Return Mission.
International cooperation is increasingly being regarded as an enabling element of space exploration, especially when it comes to challenging endeavours.

These two factors – the compelling next step in the exploration of Mars and international cooperation – prompted the IMEWG to decide to set up an ad hoc international committee to study an international architecture for a Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission concept.

After several months of collective work by scientists and engineers from several countries worldwide, the “iMARS” group is ready to publish the outcome of its deliberations and the envisioned common architecture for a future international MSR mission.

The International Mars Sample Return Conference will thus bring together members of the scientific and industrial communities as well as representatives of space agencies around the world to discuss the status and prospects for Mars exploration over the coming decades. The Conference will feature keynote addresses from scientist Steve Squyres of Cornell University, principal investigator under the MER mission, and Jean-Pierre Bibring of the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, principal investigator for a key instrument on Mars Express.

The European and international Media are invited to attend this two-day gathering, where they will have the opportunity to hear the current international thinking on Mars Sample Return and to interact with key players in the global endeavour of exploring and understanding Mars – which remains the ultimate goal of human space exploration.

About Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is a multipurpose spacecraft designed to conduct reconnaissance and exploration of Mars from orbit. The $720 million USD spacecraft was built by Lockheed Martin under the supervision of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It was launched August 12, 2005, and attained Martian orbit on March 10, 2006. In November 2006, after five months of aerobraking, it entered its final science orbit and began its primary science phase.

MRO contains a host of scientific instruments such as cameras, spectrometers, and radar, which are used to analyze the landforms, stratigraphy, minerals, and ice of Mars. It paves the way for future spacecraft by monitoring daily weather and surface conditions, studying potential landing sites, and hosting a new telecommunications system. MRO's telecommunications system will transfer more data back to Earth than all previous interplanetary missions combined, and MRO will serve as a highly capable relay satellite for future missions.

MRO science operations will last two Earth years, from November 2006 to November 2008. One of the mission's main goals is to map the Martian landscape with its high-resolution cameras in order to choose landing sites for future surface missions. The MRO played an important role in choosing the landing site of the Phoenix Lander, which is now exploring the Martian Arctic in Green Valley. The initial site chosen by scientists was imaged with the HiRISE camera and found to be littered with boulders. After analysis with HiRISE and the Mars Odyssey's THEMIS a new site was chosen. Mars Science Laboratory, a highly maneuverable rover, will also have its landing site inspected. The MRO will also provide critical navigation data during their landings and act as a telecommunications relay.

MRO is using its on-board scientific equipment to study the Martian climate, weather, atmosphere, and geology, and to search for signs of water in the polar caps and underground. In addition, MRO is looking for the remains of the previously lost Mars Polar Lander and Beagle 2 spacecraft, and serves as the first step in setting up an internet protocol network for the planets in our solar system. After its main science operations are completed, the probe's extended mission is to be the communication and navigation system for landers and rover probes.

About Mars Exploration Rover
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Mission is an ongoing robotic mission of exploring Mars, that began in 2003 with the sending of two rovers — Spirit and Opportunity — to explore the Martian surface and geology. The mission is led by Project Manager Peter Theisinger of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and principal investigator Steven Squyres, professor of astronomy at Cornell University.

Primary among the mission's scientific goals is to search for and characterize a wide range of rocks and soils that hold clues to past water activity on Mars. The mission is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program which includes three previous successful landers: the two Viking landers in 1976 and Pathfinder in 1997.

The total cost of building, launching, landing and operating the rovers on the surface for the initial 90 day primary mission was about US$820 million. Since the rovers are still functioning four years after landing, mission funding has been extended to "possibly through 2009". In July of 2007, Martian dust storms blocked sunlight to the rovers and threatened the ability of the craft to gather energy through their solar panels, causing engineers to fear that one or both of them might be permanently disabled; however, the dust storms have lifted and both rovers have resumed operations.

In figure 1, Mars Sample Return - the next step in exploring Mars

In figure 2, Serving the ultimate goal of a human mission to Mars

In figure 3, A discussion of the status and prospects for Mars exploration