Horizons Online Edition

On Friday, Jan. 20, Dr. Mark Adler of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory spoke to a full audience in the DLC auditorium about the past, current, and future of exploration on Mars. Adler is currently Mars Exploration Program Architect and Rover Mission Manager on NASA's Spirit and Opportunity rovers.

Originally designed to operate for only 90 Martian days (sols) each, the rovers have been operating without any major malfunctions for over 700 sols. Adler predicts that each rover has a potential to continue to gather information for NASA for a few more years.

Currently the components limiting the lifespan of the rovers are the electric motors on the wheels and manipulator arms. Up until now, all rovers have used brushed electric rovers. On future missions, brushless electric motors will be used to improve the lifespan of the components.

Over 1,000 people worked and are working on the Spirit and Opportunity missions. The rovers were built at a cost of $400 million each and contain tens of thousands of individual parts. The rovers can move a maximum of 150 meters per day on Mars. All commands for movements and interactions on the surface for the day are sent to the rovers each morning, sometimes taking up to 10 minutes to reach the rovers on the Martian surface.

Dr. David Lanning, the AIAA advisor, was responsible for bringing Adler to Embry-Riddle. During his presentation, Adler discussed the importance of examining Mars' history of liquid water on the surface. He demonstrated that on Earth, life has found a way to thrive in any situation where liquid water and energy exist. A presence of water on Mars can be confirmed, and then it is entirely possible and probable that life could have found a way on the red planet.

The primary mission of just about every probe sent to Mars by NASA and other space agencies has been to determine if water is still present. According to Adler, recent orbital probes have identified that there is possibly a 50% concentration of liquid water just a few meters under the surface of Mars.

When talking about certain rock formations that are only found on Earth in a water-rich environment, Adler stated, "This is the smoking gun that a long time ago Mars had a water environment," adding that there were "multiple episodes where water came and left, came and left."

Adler explained that the environmental conditions of Mars fall below the triple point of water, and therefore any liquid water on the surface would simply vaporize.

Future missions will determine if there is indeed liquid water still present. JPL is planning to send a lander in the near future to tunnel down into the ground and determine the water content and possibly how it got there. The Phoenix mission is scheduled to land in the far northern hemisphere some time in 2008.

The Mars Science Laboratory will be a very large rover by comparison to Spirit and Opportunity at about the size of a Mini Cooper. The rover will land at a site to be determined by the Mars Recon Orbiter that will arrive in orbit around Mars in March. Powered by a radioisotope thermonuclear generator, the will be able to explore more of the surface of Mars than ever before. According to Adler, the realistic life of the MSL will be between five and six years once on the surface.

The way in which the MSL will land on the surface of Mars will be unlike the airbag system of the past. The probe will rely on liquid-fueled rockets that will slow the rover to a gentle touch-down speed of one or two miles per hour on the rover's wheels.

When asked about distant exploration plans for Mars, Adler explained that any manned mission to the red planet will have to wait until around 2030, after humans return to the moon. The major issue with a manned exploration of Mars according to Adler is that most plans for manned missions only include how to send people to Mars. Returning them to Earth presents a vast logistical undertaking: the fuel for the trip home must be either manufactured on Mars or sent with the astronauts.

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