Those landers are supposed to lie on big circles, but they might not look like it because of the map projection. I like the 2 hemisphere look so I use it a lot but I admit it is not the best for these network maps. But other projections have problems too so we are staying with this one.
We've seen quite a few network ideas so you may be pleased to learn that we are going to look at some very different things now. I see you shiver with antici.......pation (I see all).
This is a 1993 proposal from French space agency CNES, described by François Costard in 1993. A long range rover would land in Kasei Valles, one of the giant channels on Mars, and drive over 300 km northwards. It would drop off three instrument packages (fixed stations) and investigate several different geological features and rock types.
We have seen rovers before but tomorrow we will see something brand new.
Jack Farmer of NASA Ames chose sites from the Landing Site Catalog with exobiology potential - where remains of past life might be preserved. Mostly this meant sites with evidence of water such as channels or lake beds. The Viking sites were added for comparison but ranked low for exobiology potential. These were studied in 1995 to help plan future missions but not directed at a specific mission proposal.
After this we will see some more Russian plans.
#maps #mars #exobiology
Things were tough for Russian space in the 1990s, and several ideas emerged to work with them, including using ICBMs as launch vehicles - such as this:
https://marspapers.org/paper/Lusignan_2000_2.pdf
This report mentions a Marsokhod evolved from the Lunokhods. Another Marsokhod mission was described by the lead author (Bruce Lusignan of Stanford) in 1996. The rover might collect samples for later return to Earth. An orbiter would relay data and might drop penetrators...
... but where would Marsokhod go? (that is always my chief preoccupation). Nine sites were described, and are shown on this map. One was illustrated in more detail, on the plateau of Aurorae Planum south of Capri Chasma (and very close to some candidate Viking sites). It is site G on the global map. Site E is quite close to Viking 1, site D is near Viking 2. I wouldn't fancy driving a rover near Viking 2. Tomorrow, more Russia.
Our next mission which didn't happen is the Mars Reference Mission, a study done during the late 1990s of a human Mars mission. Infrastructure and supplies would be launched in 2007, 2009 and 2011, and a six person crew would fly in 2013. Sample return and resource utilization experiments would be done first. A return vehicle and fuel manufacturing hardware would go next and people would not leave Earth until everything was ready for them.
The focus was on Valles Marineris and Tharsis, and several university groups developed exploration plans. The top map shows a landing area in the canyon system where layered sediments suggested deposition in a lake. Another scenario involved a base camp (with several candidates around Tharsis) and long rover traverses to points of scientific interest during a 500 day stay before returning to Earth.
All that work brought the Mars Surveyor 2001 mission to the point of drawing up a shortlist of preferred sites. But Mars Polar Lander crashed in 1999 and our plucky lander was cancelled. A few years later it was taken out of storage and used successfully for Phoenix. InSight was also the same design.
The shortlist of 8 sites had 2 in Meridiani and 4 in Isidis. The hematite site is close to Opportunity's location.
#maps #mars #mars2001
Wait - hematite? Haven't I been saying that composition was not available? It was just coming now, at low resolution, from Mars Global Surveyor's Thermal Emission Spectrometer. The background images in this map are from Mars Odyssey's THEMIS infrared instrument. Dark areas are warmed more by the Sun and are bright in THEMIS daytime images, but I have inverted the shading so dark areas look dark.
Tomorrow - Wobble! What if anything am I talking about?
Here is the Wobble paper:
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20030020925/downloads/20030020925.pdf
The target was Sarh crater in the southern highlands. Gullies on its upper wall were the science target. A Pathfinder-like lander would release a 24 m diameter hydrogen balloon which would drift over the gullies with cameras, ground-penetrating radar and other instruments to try to detect water. It would be released when the wind was blowing in the right direction and could make several hops.
#maps #mars #wobble
Sarh was nicknamed Aerobraking Crater, not because the WOBBLE mission would use aerobraking but because Mars Global Surveyor did. This crater was seen in an early MOC image taken during the aerobraking phase of the mission.
The MOC image in map C shows dark markings inside Sarh. The infrared image in B makes them look bright. That's why I sometimes reverse shading in IR images. Why not here? it would invert shadows too, making light appear to come from the south - it can't at this latitude.
@PhilStooke
Maybe #KSR had seen such maps; he had made friends with young scientists studying in Boulder, CO, and calls one of them, Chris McKay, who later went on to work for #NASA, "my Mars guy". That's where he got those areoforming ideas conceived.
The map shows some places in the general area around Ophir Chasma, like the Transverse Highway which becomes the North Ophir Road as it reaches higher ground outside of the chasma.
Maybe mixing reality with #fiction is good for geology? 🙃 😀
@PhilStooke
In a parallel #SciFi universe, that first map is ~100km away from Libya Station, where residents of Borroughs escaped on foot after the dike built around it was breached by the Reds and the city flooded and submerged.
More about Borroughs:
https://www.kimstanleyrobinson.info/content/burroughs
Phil Stooke
65dBnoise