Are you excited about the next mission to Mars? Before we send humans to the Red Planet, another rover will travel to explore Mars like its robotic siblings. We talk to scientists and engineers on the NASA team and ask “what are they are most excited when it comes to Mars 2020?”
Special thanks to Gerhard Parr, Kristin Paris, Nicole Schmitz, Jacob Adler, Sheridan Ackis, and resources from KMRE – Spark Radio & Western Washington University
Image Courtesy of NASA
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[♪ Klaus Wunderlich playing Popcorn ♪]
Dr. Regina: Hi and welcome to Spacecraft Chronicles, a show where we share knowledge of past, present, and future space missions. I’m your host, Regina Barber DeGraaff, an astrophysicist and solar system enthusiast.
Today’s episode is about the upcoming NASA mission to Mars: Mars 2020. This mission is planned to launch from Florida in the summer of 2020, and will land on Mars in February 2021. The landing site was under debate at a NASA conference in recent months, but has been narrowed to 3 choices: Gusev Crater, Jezero Crater, and Northeast Syrtis (a once active hot spring).
The new rover is planned to then explore the landing region for one Martian year (roughly 2 earth years). This future NASA endeavor will continue making discoveries, and build on the lessons learned from previous Mars rovers Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity. The 2020 rover will help us better understand the past environment of Mars, what kind of life the red planet potentially held, and if it could support human life in the future.
Mastcam-Z will also be used on the rover, which is a highly advanced camera with the ability of stereoscopic, panoramic, and zoom imagining. Last summer, I had the chance to interview several scientists working on the future NASA mission to Mars in 2020. I asked each of them what they were most excited for in the upcoming mission.
Gerhard: I’m Gerhard Parr from Austria, in Graz. Graz is the second largest city in Austria. I’m a mathematician, originally, but now I’m leading a group that is more concerned with industrial computer visions. We’re building systems for metrology, tunnel 3D reconstruction, industrial inspection, and these kinds of things.
In the Mastcam-Z team, we are concerned with the 3D vision of the Mastcam. The most exciting event will be when the first image comes back that I have to work with. The first image that comes back and reports the success of the mission will be the first image that goes into our software. We have to prove the software is running properly, and all the mission profits from it.
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Regina: I’m here with Kristin Paris and she is on the Mastcam-Z team for the Mars Rover 2020.
Kristin: For this mission I am the downlink lead for the instruments. What that means is after the camera’s been commanded we’re expecting files to come in. I’ll be in charge of writing the procedure and making sure the camera is healthy and that things are operating nominally, and that we’ve received all of the images we’re expecting.
I’m interested in the problems that come up. When everything’s working fine– that’s great, that’s amazing, we’re getting science– but it’s when things go wrong that I get really excited. I want to look at the telemetry, I want to figure out what happened, and help solve that.
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Regina: I also got the chance to talk to Nicole Schmitz, an airspace engineer for the German Aerospace Center Institute of Planetary Research.
Nicole: I have been involved as a student in the mars exploration rover. That was my first project after graduating from high school. But I, as a student, was sort of on the sideline and was listening to the NASA conference, the scientific discussions, and the operational discussions, and I enjoyed that immensely. Now, I’m actually really looking forward to have a chance to really participate.
Regina: To be in that room when it lands and like, freak out. Yes!
Among all the new features present on the 2020 mission, the possibility of sample return (sealing rocks and soil in sealed containers and bringing them back to earth) is the one that’s most exciting. I had the chance to sit down with two graduate students working on the next NASA endeavor, and I posed the same question to them: “What are you most excited about when it comes to the 2020 mission?”
Jacob: Hi, I’m Jacob Adler. I’m from Arizona State University. I work with Jim Bell, who is the PI of the instrument. I’m a grad student working on my PhD at ASU. I’m interested in Mars and I study the geology of the surface. I do that from orbit, from images pointing down from satellites that go around mars, and I also do that from the ground (from images and data from the rover).
Sheridan: My name is Sheridan Ackis. I’m a graduate student working on my PhD at Purdue University. I work for Professor Briony Horgan, who is a co-investigator on the instrument for this rover. I’m most excited about sample return. Sample return is where the rover has a little belly, and it’s going to pick up some samples and do some fun things, and then drop it out of its belly so that we can pick it up later. There’s gonna be another mission that goes and picks up the samples so that we can return them to earth.
Jacob: It’s called a fetch rover. A subsequent mission, after Mars 2020, will send a payload to the surface of Mars nearby. That has a fetch rover which will go fetch all the samples and bring them back to the MAV, which is kind of like what you saw in the movie The Martian– the MAV (Mars Ascent Vehicle). It will be only small enough– a very small rocket– in order to bring up those samples to space, into orbit around mars, where they will then be captured and brought back to earth later.
[♪ Klaus Wunderlich playing Popcorn ♪]
Regina: The rover being used in this upcoming mission is actually quite similar to the one already on Mars: Curiosity, the main difference being an improved camera (Mastcam-Z) and sample return. From War of the Worlds, to comic book heroes, to our own robots, the red planet has always been a source of thrills. When it comes to this 2020 mission, whether it’s the first images the rover returns, solving unexpected problems, or the possibility of bringing Martian soil to earth, there’s a whole lot to be excited about.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and be sure to tune in next time for another space story. This episode of spacecraft chronicles was produced, written, and edited by Taylor Raybould and Regina Barber DeGraaff. Special thanks to Gerhard Parr, Kristin Paris, Nicole Schmitz, Jacob Adler, Sheridan Ackis, and resources from KMRE – Spark Radio, and Western Washington University.
[♪ Klaus Wunderlich playing Popcorn ♪]
[End of podcast.]