For all the attention focused on how hard it will be to keep astronauts alive while they fly from Earth to Mars, the challenge of setting them safely down on the Martian surface will be just as difficult.
Entry-descent-and-landing (EDL) experts who spoke at a Humans To Mars symposium here say the “sky crane” that landed the robotic Curiosity rover on Mars last year will not scale to the huge sizes need for humans. And even if it did, the “seven minutes of terror” controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory experienced at a distance during the first sky-crane landing may be a little too tame for a human mission.
May 20th, 2013
Human Mars Lander Must Break New Ground Aviation Week & Space Technology
March 28th, 2013
Serious Intent About 2018 Human Mars Mission Aviation Week & Space Technology
If Dennis Tito has his way, when NASA launches a stripped-down version of the robotic Mars Curiosity rover toward the red planet in 2020, a middle-aged married couple with good mechanical skills and “resilient” personalities will be offering first-hand commentary to reporters at Cape Canaveral on what the planet looks like from 100 mi. up.
Even if the Inspiration Mars Foundation that Tito is bankrolling for two years from his own deep pockets never gets its human Mars-flyby mission off the ground, the world’s first space tourist believes it will have given the U.S. space endeavor a much-needed boost. Benefits will accrue via technical data for future attempts, possible medical breakthroughs needed for deep-space travel and, yes, inspiration.
October 2nd, 2012
ESA May Have Role In NASA Mars Sample Mission Aviation Week & Space Technology
NASA has decided it can do a Mars sample-return mission on its own, but it will continue to collaborate with the European Space Agency on Mars exploration despite dropping out of Europe’s ExoMars program last year.
Even though Europe has shifted to working with Russia on ExoMars, the program’s 2016 orbiter could help provide data and command relays between Earth and a 2018 NASA rover on the surface of Mars. However, it remains to be seen if there will be such a rover, and what it could do if NASA finds the funds to build it.
The U.S. space agency has 4-6 months to decide how it will proceed under its reduced Mars-exploration funding plan. That decision will be shaped by a new set of mission options from the agency’s Mars Program Planning Group (MPPG) instrument landing system, and possibly by congressional signals on fiscal 2013 funding levels for Mars. Also in the mix is the role of potential collaborators outside NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, including the European Space Agency (ESA).
August 4th, 2008
White House Briefed On Potential For Mars Life Aviation Week & Space Technology
The White House has been alerted by NASA about plans to make an announcement soon on major new Phoenix lander discoveries concerning the “potential for life” on Mars, scientists tell Aviation Week & Space Technology.
Sources say the new data do not indicate the discovery of existing or past life on Mars. Rather the data relate to habitability–the “potential” for Mars to support life–at the Phoenix arctic landing site, sources say.
The data are much more complex than results related NASA’s July 31 announcement that Phoenix has confirmed the presence of water ice at the site.
September 27th, 2004
Bigelow’s Gamble Aviation Week & Space Technology
The Bigelow Aerospace project to privately develop inflatable Earth-orbit space modules is beginning to integrate diverse U.S. and European technologies into subscale and full-scale inflatable test modules and subsystems at the company’s heavily guarded facilities here. While much public attention is focused on the massive International Space Station (ISS), Bigelow has quietly become a mini-Skunk Works for the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC). Ongoing technical assistance to Bigelow from JSC is focused on helping the company spawn development of orbiting commercial inflatable modules by the end of the decade, with the possibility of JSC later using the Bigelow technology for inflatable modules on the Moon or Mars.
April 1st, 2001
U.S. Poised For Return to Mars Aviation Week & Space Technology
The $297-million Mars Odyssey mission, crucial for NASA’s recovery from back-to-back Mars flight losses, is set for liftoff this week on a “do-or-die” mission to validate reforms in the wake of the failures. The Odyssey orbiter will search for “Martian oases” as targets for future U.S./European landers.
December 11th, 2000
Nozomi On Target for Mars Aviation Week & Space Technology
Japan’s Nozomi spacecraft is on schedule to enter an orbit in Mars’ upper atmosphere in January 2004 after completing the second of three trips it will take around the Sun since its July 1998 launch. The 1,177-lb. spacecraft has been taking measurements of the interplanetary medium as it continues on a four-year trip to Mars. These include counts of dust and energetic particles and readings of low energy plasma, the magnetic field and the densities of hydrogen and helium. Program Manager Koichiro Tsuruda of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences reports the spacecraft and its instruments are healthy.
December 11th, 2000
MGS Pries Secrets Out of Red Planet Aviation Week & Space Technology
Last week’s revelation from Mars Global Surveyor data–that sedimentary rocks suggest past bodies of water on the red planet–is just the latest discovery by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory spacecraft.
December 11th, 2000
Red Team Preps Odyssey to Mars Aviation Week & Space Technology
With a Red Team acting as an over-the-shoulder review panel, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. say they are on target for an Apr. 7 launch of the space agency’s next mission to the red planet. The mission is the 2001 Mars Odyssey, which is to spend two years mapping the planet’s surface and measuring its environment with an eye on understanding the basics of what it will take for man to visit, and perhaps live, on the planet. The 2001 Odyssey will operate from a 400-km.- (250-mi.) high-Sun-synchronous orbit. Launch from Cape Canaveral will be on a Delta II.
December 11th, 2000
Beagle 2: New Benchmark For Mars Science, Engineering Aviation Week & Space Technology
Of all the innovative science and technology engineered into Europe’s Mars Express mission, perhaps none is so bold as the lander. Christened Beagle 2, after Charles Darwin’s legendary vessel, the lander will be pioneering in more ways than one. If successful, it will mark the first time countries other than the U.S. or the Soviet Union have landed a spacecraft on another planet. And assuming NASA’s two Athena probes touch down safely, it will be the first time three landers have reached such a body at the same time.