Goals and Objectives of Past Spacecraft
Missions
The first assignment of the NASA Aerospace Scholars Program in 2011
appears below.
Your assignment is to design plan a robotics mission to Mars. Using the
information you have learned about robotic spacecraft and the planet Mars,
put on your engineering hat and let your imagination go!
Your first task is to write an abstract or brief summary of your proposal. The
goal of your abstract is to give an overview of the goals and objectives of the
mission. You will need to think about the logistics of a mission to Mars and
the objectives you would accomplish on the mission. In your abstract, you
should list and explain at least 3 goals of your mission.
Your abstract should be a minimum of 300 words, maximum of 600 words.
Review the grading rubric below prior to submitting your assignment.
You need to start thinking about your Mars mission. What are
the mission goals (at least three)? What are the mission
objectives (at least three)? Please read the rest of this
presentation and start writing down your ideas for goals and
objectives. Please feel free to email me with your ideas.
For the Full 10 points
Writing Content

Lists and explains at least 3
mission goals and objectives
Writing Quality
(Writing Style, Grammar)
Clearly lists and explains in detail at least 3
mission goals and objectives
Outstanding essay. Correct grammar
always used.
Creativity
Excellent creativity of assignment.
Language
Excellent integration of scientific terms.
Technical Specifications
Meets word length requirement and cites
at least 2 sources
(Length, Sources)

300-600 words

Cites at least 2 sources
Mars Exploration Program
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Mars Exploration Program (MEP) is a long-term effort to explore the planet Mars,
funded and led by the U.S. space agency, National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA). Formed in 1993, MEP has made use of orbital spacecraft,
landers, and rovers to explore the possibilities of life on Mars, as well as the planet's
climate and natural resources.[1] The program is managed by NASA's Science Mission
Directorate by Doug McCuistion of the Planetary Science Division.[2] As a result of 40%
cuts to NASA's budget for fiscal year 2013, the Mars Program Planning Group (MPPG)
was formed to help reformulate the MEP, bringing together leaders of NASA's
technology, science, human operations, and science missions.[3][4]
Background
• The Mars Exploration Program itself was formed officially in the wake of the failed
Mars Observer in September 1992,[1] which had been NASA's first Mars mission
since the Viking 1 and Viking 2 projects in 1975. The spacecraft, which was based
on a modified Earth-orbiting commercial satellite, carried a payload of instruments
designed to study the geology, geophysics, and climate of Mars from orbit. The
mission ended in August 1993 when communications were lost three days before
the spacecraft had been scheduled to enter orbit.[7]
Mars Exploration Program
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Goal 1: Determine if life ever arose on Mars
•
Curiosity's self-portrait on the planet Mars at "Rocknest" (MAHLI, October 31, 2012).
•
In order to understand Mars' potential for life, it must be determined whether or not there ever was life on Mars, which begins with assessing the
planet's suitability for life. The main strategy regarding the MEP, nicknamed "Follow the Water," is the general idea that where life is present, there is
water (at least in instances on Earth). It is likely that if life ever did arise on Mars, there would need to be a supply of water that was present for a
substantial amount of time. Therefore, a prominent goal of the MEP is to look for places where water is, was, or could possibly be, such as dried up
riverbeds, under the planetary surface, and in Mars' polar ice caps.
•
Aside from water, life also needs sources of energy to survive. The abundance of superoxides makes life on the surface of Mars very unlikely, which
essentially rules out sunlight as a possible source of energy for life. Therefore, alternative sources of energy must be searched for, such as geothermal
and chemical energy. These sources, which are both used by life forms on Earth, could be used by microscopic life forms living under the Mars' surface.
•
Life on Mars can also be searched for by finding signatures of past and present life. Relative carbon abundance and the location and forms that it can be
found in can inform where and how life may have developed. Also, the presence of carbonate minerals, along with the fact that Mars' atmosphere is
made up largely of carbon dioxide, would tell scientists that water may have been on the planet long enough to foster the development of life.[9]
Goal 2: Characterize the climate of Mars
•
Another goal of the MEP is to characterize Mars' climate, with regards to its current and past climate, as well as factors that influence climate change on
Mars. Currently what is known is that the climate is regulated by seasonal changes of Mars' ice caps, movement of dust by the atmosphere, and the
exchange of water vapor between the surface and the atmosphere. To understand these climatic phenomena means helping scientists more effectively
model Mars' past climate, which brings a higher degree of understanding of the dynamics of Mars to NASA scientists.[10]
Goal 3: Characterize the geology of Mars
•
The geology of Mars is differentiable from that of Earth by, among other things, its extremely large volcanoes and lack of crust movement. A goal of the
MEP is to understand these differences from Earth along with the way that wind, water, volcanoes, tectonics, cratering and other processes have
shaped the surface of Mars. Rocks can help scientists describe the sequence of events in Mars' history, tell whether there was an abundance of water
on the planet through identifying minerals that are formed only in water, and tell if Mars once had a magnetic field (which would point toward Mars at
one point being a dynamic Earth-like planet).[11]
Goal 4: Prepare for the human exploration of Mars
•
The human exploration of Mars presents a massive engineering challenge. With Mars' surface containing superoxides and lacking a magnetosphere and
an ozone layer to protect from radiation from the sun, scientists would have to thoroughly understand as much of Mars' dynamics as possible before
any action can be taken toward the goal of putting humans on Mars.[12]
Since our first close-up picture of Mars in 1965, spacecraft voyages to the Red Planet
have revealed a world strangely familiar, yet different enough to challenge our
perceptions of what makes a planet work. Every time we feel close to understanding
Mars, new discoveries send us straight back to the drawing board to revise existing
theories.
You'd think Mars would be easier to understand. Like Earth, Mars has polar ice caps
and clouds in its atmosphere, seasonal weather patterns, volcanoes, canyons and
other recognizable features. However, conditions on Mars vary wildly from what we
know on our own planet.
Over the past three decades, spacecraft have shown us that Mars is rocky, cold, and
dry beneath its hazy, pink sky. We've discovered that today's Martian wasteland
hints at a formerly volatile world where volcanoes once raged, meteors plowed
deep craters, and flash floods rushed over the land. And Mars continues to throw
out new enticements with each landing or orbital pass made by our spacecraft.
The Defining Question for Mars Exploration: Life on Mars?
Among our discoveries about Mars, one stands out above all others: the possible
presence of liquid water on Mars, either in its ancient past or preserved in the
subsurface today. Water is key because almost everywhere we find water on Earth,
we find life. If Mars once had liquid water, or still does today, it's compelling to ask
whether any microscopic life forms could have developed on its surface. Is there
any evidence of life in the planet's past? If so, could any of these tiny living
creatures still exist today? Imagine how exciting it would be to answer, "Yes!!“
Even if Mars is devoid of past or present life, however, there's still much excitement
on the horizon. We ourselves might become the "life on Mars" should humans
choose to travel there one day. Meanwhile, we still have a lot to learn about this
amazing planet and its extreme environments.
Our Exploration Strategy: Seek Signs of
Life
To discover the possibilities for past or present life on Mars, NASA's Mars Exploration Program is
currently following an exploration strategy known as "Seek Signs of Life.“
This science theme marks a transition in Mars exploration. It reflects a long-term process of discovery
on the red planet, built on strategies to understand Mars' potential as a habitat for past or present
microbial life. Searching for this answer means delving into the planet's geologic and climate history to
find out how, when and why Mars underwent dramatic changes to become the forbidding, yet
promising, planet we observe today.
About 3.8-3.5 billion years ago, Mars and Earth were much more similar. Evidence from Mars missions
suggest Mars may have been much warmer and wetter than we observe it to be today. In this ancient
timeframe, scientists find the first evidence of microbial life on Earth. Did Mars provide similar
environmental conditions for life long ago? If microbes were present on Mars in the planet's ancient
past, could it exist in special regions today? And, even if microbial life never existed, might Mars provide
a future habitat for human explorers someday in the future?
Because water is key to life as we know it, earlier Mars missions (2001 Mars Odyssey, Mars Exploration
Rovers, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Phoenix Lander) were designed to make discoveries under
the previous Mars Exploration Program science theme of "Follow the Water." Progressive discoveries
related to evidence of past and present water in the geologic record make it possible to take the next
steps toward finding evidence of life itself.
Successful Mars Missions
Launch date[1]
Spacecraft
Mission[1]
Operator
Mariner 4
28 November 1964
NASA United States
Flyby
Mariner 6
25 February 1969
NASA United States
Flyby
Mariner 7
27 March 1969
NASA United States
Flyby
Mariner 9
30 May 1971
NASA United States
Orbiter
Mars 2
19 May 1971
Soviet Union
Orbiter
Mars 2 lander
19 May 1971
Soviet Union
Lander
Mars 3
28 May 1971
Soviet Union
Orbiter
Viking 1 orbiter
20 August 1975
NASA United States
Orbiter
Viking 1 lander
20 August 1975
NASA United States
Lander
Viking 2 orbiter
9 September 1975
NASA United States
Orbiter
Viking 2 lander
9 September 1975
NASA United States
Lander
Mars Global Surveyor
7 November 1996
NASA United States
Orbiter
Mars Pathfinder
4 December 1996
NASA United States
Lander/Rover
Mars Odyssey
7 April 2001
NASA United States
Orbiter
Mars Express
2 June 2003
ESA European Union
Orbiter
Spirit
10 June 2003
NASA United States
Rover
Opportunity
8 July 2003
NASA United States
Rover
MRO
12 August 2005
NASA United States
Orbiter
Phoenix
4 August 2007
NASA United States
Lander
Curiosity
26 November 2011
NASA United States
Rover
Mars Orbiter Mission
5 November 2013
ISRO India
Orbiter
MAVEN
18 November 2013
NASA United States
Orbiter
Goals and Objectives from Selected
Mars Missions
• Goals tend to be larger broad statements like
– Explore the history of Life in the Solar System
– Understand the process of planet formation
– Study the evolution of planetary climate
• Objectives are more specific
– Look for evidence of environments suitable for life
– Perform seismic measurements to determine the
interior structure of the planet.
– Examine stratigraphic layers to map the paleoclimate
Landing Sites of Previous Mars
Missions
Mariner 9, 1971
(only an orbiter)
Mariner 9 was designed to continue the atmospheric
studies begun by Mariner 6 and 7, and
• to map over 70% of the Martian surface from the
lowest altitude (1,500 kilometers (930 mi) and at the
highest resolutions (from 1 kilometer per pixel to 100
meters per pixel) of any Mars mission up to that point.
• An infrared radiometer was included to detect heat
sources in search of evidence of volcanic activity.
• It was to study temporal changes in the Martian
atmosphere and surface.
• Mars' two moons were also to be analyzed.
Viking Orbiter and Landers, 1975
Science objectives
• Obtain high-resolution images of the Martian
surface
• Characterize the structure and composition of
the atmosphere and surface
• Search for evidence of life on Mars
Mars Pathfinder Mission, 1997
(lander and rover)
Mission goals
• To demonstrate that a “cheaper, faster, better” spacecraft can explore the
planets, and
• to analyze the Martian atmosphere, climate, geology and the composition
of its rocks and soil.
Mission objectives
• To prove that the development of "faster, better and cheaper" spacecraft
was possible (with three years for development and a cost under
$150 million).
• To show that it was possible to send a load of scientific instruments to
another planet with a simple system and at one fifteenth the cost of a
Viking mission. (For comparison, the Viking missions cost $935 million in
1974[8] or $3.5 billion in 1997 dollars)
• To demonstrate NASA's commitment to low-cost planetary exploration by
finishing the mission with a total expenditure of $280 million, including
the launch vehicle and mission operations.
The Mars Science Laboratory mission and its Curiosity rover mark a
transition between the themes of "Follow the Water" and "Seek Signs
of Life." In addition to landing in a place with past evidence of water,
Curiosity is seeking evidence of organics, the chemical building blocks
of life. Places with water and the chemistry needed for life potentially
provide habitable conditions. Future Mars missions would likely be
designed to search for life itself in places identified as potential past or
present habitats.
Like all Mars Exploration Program missions, future missions will be
driven by rigorous scientific questions that continually evolve from
discoveries by prior missions. New and previously developed
technologies will enable us to explore Mars in ways we never have
before, resulting in higher-resolution images, precision landings,
longer-ranging surface mobility and even the return of Martian soil
and rock samples for studies in laboratories here on Earth.
Mars Exploration Rovers: Spirit and
Opportunity, 2004
The scientific goals of the rover missions are
• to gather data to help determine if life ever arose on Mars,
• characterize the climate of Mars,
• characterize the geology of Mars, and
• prepare for human exploration of Mars.
To achieve these goals, seven science objectives are called for:
• search for and characterize a variety of rocks and soils that hold clues to past water activity,
• determine the distribution and composition of minerals, rocks, and soils surrounding the landing
sites,
• determine what geologic processes have shaped the local terrain and influenced the chemistry
• perform "ground truth" of surface observations made by Mars orbiter instruments,
• search for iron-bearing minerals, identify and quantify relative amounts of specific mineral types that
contain water or were formed in water,
• characterize the mineralogy and textures of rocks and soils and determine the processes that created
them, and
• search for geological clues to the environmental conditions that existed when liquid water was
present and assess whether those environments were conducive to life.
Mars Polar Lander, 1999
(Failed to land successfully)
The goal of MPL was to soft land, under propulsive power, near the edges of the south polar ice cap on Mars and to use
cameras, a robotic arm and several sophisticated instruments to measure the Martian soil composition.
•
The Mars Polar Lander was to touch down on the southern polar layered terrain, between 73 S and 76 S, less than
1000 km from the south pole, near the edge of the carbon dioxide ice cap in Mars' late southern spring. This
terrain appears to be composed of alternating layers of clean and dust-laden ice, and may represent a long-term
record of the climate, as well as an important volatile reservoir.
The mission had as its primary science objectives to:
•
record local meteorological conditions near the Martian south pole, including temperature, pressure, humidity,
wind, surface frost, ground ice evolution, ice fogs, haze, and suspended dust,
•
analyze samples of the polar deposits for volatiles, particularly water and carbon dioxide,
•
dig trenches and image the interior to look for seasonal layers and analyze soil samples for water, ice, hydrates, and
other aqueously deposited minerals,
•
image the regional and immediate landing site surroundings for evidence of climate changes and seasonal cycles,
and
•
obtain multi-spectral images of local regolith to determine soil types and composition.
•
These goals were to be accomplished using a number of scientific instruments, including a Mars Volatiles and
Climate Surveyor (MVACS) instrument package which was comprised of a robotic arm and attached camera, mastmounted surface stereo imager and meteorology package, and a gas analyzer. In addition, a Mars Descent Imager
(MARDI) was planned to capture regional views from parachute deployment at about 8 km altitude down to the
landing. The Russian Space Agency provided a laser ranger (LIDAR) package for the lander, which would be used to
measure dust and haze in the Martian atmosphere. A miniature microphone was also on board to record sounds
on Mars. Attached to the lander spacecraft were a pair of small probes, the Deep Space 2 Mars Microprobes, which
were to be deployed to fall and penetrate beneath the Martian surface when the spacecraft reached Mars.
The spacecraft was launched January 3, 1999; unfortunately, no signal was received from the spacecraft upon arrival at
Mars on December 3, 1999. The communication loss and the ultimate fate of the spacecraft remains a mystery.
However, like the mythical bird for which it is named, the Mars Scout mission Phoenix has “risen from the ashes” and
carries several of the instruments developed for Mars Polar Lander.
Mars Science Laboratory and the
Curiosity Rover, 2011
(Only an orbiter)
The main scientific goals of the MSL mission are
• to help determine whether Mars could ever have supported life,
• to determine the role of water in Martain history,
• to study the climate and geology of Mars.[13][14]
• The mission will also help prepare for human exploration
To contribute to these goals, MSL has eight main scientific objectives:
• Biological
–
–
–
•
Geological and geochemical
–
–
•
Investigate the chemical, isotopic, and mineralogical composition of the Martian surface and near-surface geological
materials
Interpret the processes that have formed and modified rocks and soils
Planetary process
–
–
•
Determine the nature and inventory of organic carbon compounds
Investigate the chemical building blocks of life (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur)
Identify features that may represent the effects of biological processes (biosignatures)
Assess long-timescale (i.e., 4-billion-year) Martian atmospheric evolution processes
Determine present state, distribution, and cycling of water and carbon dioxide
Surface radiation
–
Characterize the broad spectrum of surface radiation, including galactic and cosmic radiation, solar proton events
and secondary neutrons. As part of its exploration, it also measured the radiation exposure in the interior of the
spacecraft as it traveled to Mars, and it is continuing radiation measurements as it explores the surface of Mars. This
data would be important for a future manned mission.
Mars Atmosphere and Volatile
EvolutioN (MAVEN), 2014
Mission Goals:
• to explore Mars' upper atmosphere and ionosphere, and interactions with
the solar wind,
• to determine the loss of volatile compounds to space through time and
how it has affected the history of Mars' atmosphere and climate.
MAVEN has four primary scientific objectives:
• Determine the role that loss of volatiles from the Mars atmosphere to
space has played through time;
• determine the current state of the upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and
interactions with the solar wind;
• determine the current rates of escape of neutral gases and ions to space
and the processes controlling them; and,
• determine the ratios of stable isotopes that will tell Mars' history of loss
through time. MAVEN is part of NASA's Mars Scout program.