Next Step in Space
July is a busy month for the year 2008, with the European Commission launching the Galileo’s procurement, a global navigation system composed of 30 dedicated satellites, a ground infrastructure with main control centers in Europe, and a network of dedicated stations deployed around the world. Also, several agencies will be co-hosting an International Conference on July 9 and 10 in Paris to discuss the next step in the Mars Explorations–ESA and the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), supported by NASA and the International Mars Exploration Working Group (IMEWG). For the latter, data is still being collected under NASA’s Phoenix, Mars Reconnaissance Orbier, Mars Exploration Rover, and the Mars Odyssey missions, in addition to ESA’s Mars Express mission.
What is being planned in the future are NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory and ESA’s ExoMars, continuing at a steady basis to integrate scientific payloads and technologies to carry out manned missions to Mars. But the entire international community feels the next step is a Sample Return Mission, in order to increase knowledge and understanding of Mars. Because of this, the “iMARS” group has been established in order to study an international architecture for the mission concept, compelled by two steps:
• Necessity of international cooperation
• A compelling next step in Mars exploration
Several months of collective work has went into the groups’ development, and are now ready to publish their outcome and envisioned common architecture for the future mission to Mars. The International Mars Sample Return Conference’s goal is to bring together members of both scientific and industrial communities, along with space agency representatives on a global basis to discuss the status and prospects for the next decade of Mars exploration.
Keynote speakers are scientist Steve Squyres of Cornell University, principal investigator under the MER mission, and Jean-Pierre Bibring of the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, principal investigator for a key instrument on Mars Express. A two-day gathering of the current international thinking on the Mars Sample Return in addition to interacting with key figures.
The Mars Sample Return is a complex Flagship mission with five spacecraft: an Earth/Mars transfer stage, a Mars orbiter, a descent module, an ascent module and an Earth re-entry vehicle. According to ESA, “a number of new technologies will be required to carry out this pioneering mission. These include the landing system on Mars, the Mars ascent vehicle, the rendezvous system in Mars orbit and the Earth re-entry vehicle or capsule. In principle all of these can be tested in a near-Earth environment except for the final qualification of the rendezvous and docking system, which should preferably be carried out in a Mars orbit. The technology required for this Flagship mission will be developed during a series of technology-driven arrow missions.”
This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 at 5:51 am and is filed under Public Relations, Space Agency News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
