A Science Strategy for the Human Exploration of Mars<\/a>, identifies 11 top science objectives for human Mars missions and outlines four campaigns of missions to achieve them. NASA\u2019s science and exploration directorates commissioned the study.<\/p>\nThe highest-priority objective is searching for evidence of past or present life on Mars. \u201cThis is the millennia-old question: Are we alone in the universe?\u201d said Lindy Elkins-Tanton, director of the University of California, Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory and co-chair of the study committee, during a Dec. 9 briefing.<\/p>\n
Other priorities range from studying Martian climate and geology to characterizing resources for future missions and assessing the effects of the Martian environment on crew health, plants and animals.<\/p>\n
Elkins-Tanton said the committee selected the top 11 objectives from hundreds of candidates. \u201cI don\u2019t want you to think that the first one is an A+ and the last one is an F,\u201d she said. \u201cAll 11 are incredibly important.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 11 priorities \u201care critically important,\u201d added co-chair Dava Newman, an MIT professor and former NASA deputy administrator. \u201cWe can\u2019t live without any of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The objectives require human presence, Elkins-Tanton said. \u201cThe complexity of measurements and decisions that need to be made to thoroughly answer these science objectives \u2014 we don\u2019t have a way to do them without humans being involved right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report recommends NASA study \u201chuman-agent teaming,\u201d combining astronaut capabilities with robotics and artificial intelligence to maximize scientific output. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing humans are going to be doing by themselves\u201d on Mars, she said. \u201cEverything we do is going to be done with agents.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report also called for an \u201cevolution\u201d of planetary protection requirements to allow astronauts to more effectively search for past or present life. It also recommended that any human mission be equipped with an extensive laboratory of analysis capabilities for doing research on the planet, as well as bringing back samples to Earth on every crewed mission for more extensive studies.<\/p>\n
Four campaigns<\/p>\n
The report outlines four notional mission campaigns to pursue the science objectives. They include both short-stay missions of about 30 Martian days, or sols (a sol is about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day), and long-stay missions of about 300 sols.<\/p>\n
The top campaign, \u201cMars Science Across an Expanded Exploration Zone,\u201d envisions missions studying terrain within about 100 kilometers of a landing site selected for scientific diversity. \u201cWe really have to do a lot of upfront work here,\u201d Newman said. \u201cWe have to know where we\u2019re going.\u201d<\/p>\n
A second campaign, \u201cSynergy of Mars Science Measurements,\u201d focuses on obtaining the most crucial measurements for all objectives from a single site equipped with extensive scientific infrastructure. A third campaign, \u201cSeeking Life Beneath the Martian Icy Crust,\u201d targets astrobiology, including drilling as deep as five kilometers into the surface.<\/p>\n
All three use what the report calls a \u201c30-Cargo-300\u201d approach: an initial 30-sol crewed mission, followed by a cargo delivery mission, then a 300-sol mission.<\/p>\n
A fourth campaign, \u201cInvestigating Mars at Three Sites,\u201d would send three 30-sol missions to different locations. \u201cIt gives you some breadth, but maybe not depth,\u201d Newman said.<\/p>\n
What, not how<\/p>\n
The report focuses on what science future missions should pursue, not how they should be carried out. It does not address technical approaches, schedules or budgets.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this report we\u2019re talking about what we should do when we go to Mars, not how we should do it,\u201d Elkins-Tanton said. \u201cThe how we should do it comes next.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we relied on the how that is possible today, then our aspirations for the really best work we could do would be significantly curtailed,\u201d she said later in the presentation. \u201cAny answer that we would have to this question today would not be the final answer and therefore not particularly useful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newman said the report does identify several \u201cenabling technology pillars,\u201d such as deep drilling and human-agent teaming, that should be integrated into NASA\u2019s broader moon-to-Mars architecture.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think the science priorities and what we can accomplish will evolve as we learn more,\u201d she said. \u201cBut we think this is a really good start.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 The search for past or present life should be the top science objective of future human…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[85,46,2758,3442,141,3443],"class_list":["post-179361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-mars","tag-nasa","tag-science","tag-sn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}