Technology Enabling the Exploration of

MarsBrooke Tuttle

ITMG 100 09 – PowerPoint Presentation11/18/2008

What has NASA been pursuing?

• A science based exploration of Mars to understand:– Life– Climate– Geology– Preparation for Human Exploration

Focus Technology• Specific and essential • ‘Near-term’ missions Base Technology

• Applies to various missions

• Long term• High risk• High pay off

The Mars Technology Program

Focus Technology Base Technology

Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Rover Technology

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) Mars Science Instrument Development

Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Telecom and Navigation

Mars Telecom Orbiter (MTO) Planetary Protection

Second Decade Missions Advanced EDL

Mars Sample Return (MSR) Subsurface Access

Astrobiology Field Laboratory (AFL) Low-Cost Mission Technology

Advanced Electronics

Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)

What is the MSL?

•Mars Science Laboratory

– IT’S A ROVER!!

• Gathering samples

• Fall 2009!!!

Is there REALLY life on Mars?!

• WAS there or IS there microbial life?– aka ‘habitability’

• Soil and rock samples –Geology and climate

• Innovative technology

Broad Benefit Technologies

• Propulsion –Atlas V

• Power– MMRTG

• Telecommunications• Software engineering–Daily updates

In-situ Exploration and Sample Return Technologies• What is in-situ??– In the aerospace industry,

equipment on board an aircraft must be tested "in situ", or in place, to confirm everything functions properly as a system.

- So, exploration ‘in the place of’ Mars

Entry, Descent, and Landing

• Guided Entry (GNC)

• Powered Descent

• Descent Imaging

• Bigger Parachute

• Sky Crane

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E37Ss9Tm36c

Autonomous Planetary Mobility

• Avoid hazards• Traditional technologies• Innovative technologies– Size of a miniature compact car

• Rocker bogie• Global path planning and visual

target planning

Technologies for Severe Environments

• Temperature varies from -196˚F to 86˚F• How does that poor rover not just

explode?–General use of instruments create heat–Strategic heaters–Heat Rejection System

Sample Return Technologies

• Gather samples and store for analysis

• Actually testing the latest technologies

• Hopefully paving the way for future missions to bring back samples to Earth

Planetary Protection Technologies

• Cleaning and sterilizing• Handling of rock, soil, and

atmospheric samples• We do NOT want to discover

ourselves!• LAL & ATP = faster measures of

biological cleanliness

Works Cited

• "NASA's Mars Exploration Program." Technologies That Enable Mars Exploration. 12 Mar. 2006. NASA. <http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/technology/>.

• "Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology." Mars Science Laboratory. 13 Nov. 2008. NASA. <http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/>.

• In Situ. 13 Nov. 2008. Wikipedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/in_situ>.

Questions?! =)