Man’s Missions to the Martian World

Man’s Missions to the Martian World

By Ankit Dangi, CS Graduate Student, 2015

Understanding neighbors in our planetary neighborhood is perhaps our best guess towards delving deeper into the realms of space science. Missions for exploration of Mars started more than half a century ago, and yet, our understanding of our next door neighbor is minimal. Varied attempts have been made by space agencies to explore its physical characteristics (including internal structure, surface geology, soil structures, hydrology, geography of surface features, atmosphere, climate etc.), orbit and rotation, search for life and even possibilities for potential habitability.

Participants: Space agencies around the world including America’s NASA, Russia’s RFSA (aka. Roscosmos), Europe’s ESA, Japan’s JAXA, China’s CNSA and India’s ISRO have attempted independent missions to Mars. As of now, successful attempts have been credited to NASA, RFSA and ESA. Understandably, each space agency functions with its own technical capabilities, infrastructure, mission objectives, scientific readiness, operational budgets, time and space constraints that determine the success/failures of their Mars missions. However, there have been collaborations providing direct support (via joint space exploration programs) and by external support focusing on communications, monitoring, navigation and need-based support to other space agencies.

Missions: Multi-stage efforts towards exploration of Mars have classified missions as: Flybys, Orbiters, Landers & Rovers, Airplanes & Balloons, Subsurface Explorers and Sample Returns. Mars Flybys were initial exploratory spacecraft that passed by the vicinity of the Red Planet but did not enter the orbits. These unmanned space probes took pictures and recorded signals on their journey for data collection. Further, the Orbiters understand the planet as a whole by building our know-how of its physical similarities to Earth (including canyons, volcanoes, craters, clouds, weather patterns, rocks, polar ice caps etc.), geophysical characteristics (gravity, mineral composition, magnetic fields etc.) and the planet’s atmosphere. Orbiters have an ongoing longer role to play in developing our understanding, and in strengthening scientific beliefs of our neighbor. Once orbiters are in place, Landers decelerate from the planet’s orbit to its surface passing across its atmosphere. Scientific advancements for safe landing include airbags, legs-enabled shock absorbers providing stability, and terrain scanning based lighter impact protection systems for effective guidance towards smaller target zones. Upon landing, Rovers provide mobility on the surface of Mars to enable surface discovery for investigation of inaccessible sites. Beyond traveling on flat surfaces, rovers comprise of (i) inflatable wheels that enable climbing of rocks, and (ii) adjustable shoulders that allow dropping low to the ground or elevation while navigating through craters or gullies.

NASA missions to Mars include the Mariner program flybys which later became the Voyager program that traveled into unexplored regions of Space much beyond Mars. Some of the first orbiters from USA include the Viking Mission that succeeded in capturing high-resolution images of the Martian surface and helped characterize the structure and composition of the surface and atmosphere. It was later followed by the Mars Observer program. Although it lost contact after entering into orbit, the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter later turned out to be a prime milestone in Mars explorations. It provided with high resolution imaging of the Martian surface, studies of the topography and gravitational field, the role of water and dust on the surface and in the atmosphere, weather and climate of Mars, the composition of the surface and atmosphere, and the existence and evolution of the Martian magnetic field. Some of these crucial observations have been enlisted as the Top Ten Discoveries of the Mars Exploration Program by NASA’s Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) that assists in the planning of scientific exploration of Mars.

Current robotic rovers that continually move on the Martian surface include the Curiosity rover and the Opportunity rover. While Curiosity rover has helped accomplish multiple scientific objectives (including biological, geological, geochemical, planetary process and surface radiation), the Opportunity rover has been successful in determining geologic processes that have shaped the local terrain, influenced the chemistry, distribution and composition of mineralogy (minerals, rocks and soils), and have also enabled the validation and characterization of surface observations that were made by earlier Mars orbiters. The Curiosity rover has even been in autonomous operation modes for shorter durations.

While the chronological history of Mars missions are dated to diverse successful/failed attempts by various participants, however, recent missions such as ISRO’s MOM and NASA’s MAVEN strengthen continued efforts towards deeper explorations. While the former focuses on technology showcase by development of technologies required for design, planning, management and operations of such an interplanetary mission by an economically developing nation, the latter focuses on digging deeper into the Martian atmosphere by determining (i) the role that loss of volatiles to space from the Martian atmosphere has played through time (ii) the current state of upper atmosphere, ionosphere and interactions with solar wind (iii) current rates of escape of neutral gases and ions to space and the processes controlling them, and (iv) the ratio of stable isotopes in the Martian atmosphere.

The near future of Mars explorations comprises of (i) the ExoMars mission (ii) the InSight mission and, (iii) the Mars sample return mission. ExoMars mission aims to search for biosignatures of Martian life. This mission is jointly being developed by ESA and RFSA. Such astrobiology missions to Mars demonstrate a strong human will to endeavor into deeper understanding of the Red Planet. The InSight mission is a joint collaboration between NASA, German Aerospace Center and French Space Agency. It is a NASA Discovery Program mission that shall place a geophysical lander to discover more about the geology of the planet. It is a subsurface explorer that intends to focus on interior exploration of Martian subsurface using seismic investigations, geodesy and heat transport. The futuristic Mars sample return mission would help in bringing samples of Martian rocks, soils, and atmosphere to Earth that would yield opportunities for detailed studies on Earth.

NASA’s scientific missions to Mars also enable public involvement by suggesting which places on Mars the high resolution imaging should be performed via HiRISE HiWish program and the Mars Student Imaging Project as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. And, the Google Mars project provides visible, infrared, and elevation (shaded relief) views of Mars.

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