Dr. Anita SenguptaResearch Professor, University of Southern California

The Future of Mars Exploration

How do we land on Mars?

Why Are We so Interested In Mars?

The Terrestrial Planets Look Very Different, but what about at the beginning of time?

Parameter Mars EarthDistance (AU) 1.4 1Mass( Earth) 1/10 1Radius (km) 1/2 1Gravity (Earth) 1/3 1Pressure (Earth) 1/100 1Atmosphere CO2 N2/O2Temp (F) -120 60Day (hrs) 24.6 24

Active Geological History – What Happened?

Olympus Mons

Valles Marineres

Does Mars Have Moons?

Waters of Mars

• Large bodies of water once flowed on the surface

Have We Found Water on Mars?

Is there Water Flowing on Mars Today?

• MRO that Mars has wet mud flowing on the surface

• Mars is tilted on its axis resulting in seasonal freezing and thawing

Have We Found Flowing Water on Mars?

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Landing on Mars

• How many times have we landed on mars?• 7 times

– Viking Landers (2)– Pathfinder Sojourner– Spirit and Opportunity (2)– Phoenix Lander – Curiosity: Aug 2012– Next: Insight and Mars 2020

Learning from Past and Building the FutureEvolution of Technology, Complexity and Size

Did Mars Once Support Life?

• Biological Potential• Geology and

Geochemistry• Role of Water• Surface Radiation

Picking a Landing Site: Gale Crater

150-km Gale Crater contains a 6-km high mound of stratified rock. Strata in the lower section of the mound vary in mineralogy and texture, suggesting that they may have recorded environmental changes over time. Curiosity will investigate this record for clues about habitability, and the ability of Mars to preserve evidence about habitability or life.

Mt. Sharp in the middle of Gale Crater is as tall base-to-peak as Mt.

McKinley in Alaska, which is the tallest mountain in North America

Gale Crater Gale Crater Targets a 20 km Landing Ellipse

Bulls Eye on Mars

Bulls Eye on WA

Faster than a bullet50 times as fast as an airplane

It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane?

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Do We Use Agile?I Googled Agile -> wait for it

Bulls Eye on Mas

Parachute Testing (On Earth)More like Agile

Team Work and Diversity to Solve Engineering Challenges

The Future: Advanced Power Systems

ChemCam(Chemistry)

Mastcam(Imaging)

REMS(Weather)

DAN(SubsurfaceHydrogen)

SAM(Chemistryand Isotopes)

CheMin(Mineralogy)

MARDI(Imaging)

APXS(Chemistry) MAHLI

(Imaging)RAD(Radiation)

DrillScoopBrushSieves

Mars Essentials

What would be your choice of

Science Instruments?

Photon Torpedos of course

How long does it take to get to Mars?

7 - 9 months

November 2011

Landing Night

The Future: Terrain Relative Nav

Curiosity landed in an ancient lake on Mars

Simulations versus Reality

Post Landing Assessment

Autonomous Systems

Intelligent Systems

Curiosity took a ‘selfie’made from 55 images taken with camera on its arm.

Life on Mars?Curiosity Killed the …..

Future Landing Site Assessment

Understanding the Environment

NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI

Key Observables for Landing Site Selection

What is the Future?

Getting Larger Payloads to the surface

What is the Future?

Environmental Control Systems

What is the Future?

Surface Mobility

In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU)

Power

Radiation Protection

Water

Methane

Extremophiles

Growing Food

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Would You Want to Live on Mars?

The Future is Mars

@Doctor_Astro

• Engineers and scientists make Mars exploration a reality

• Space Agencies from around the world are going to Mars

• All data are returned to Earth are publically available minutes after they arrive because this is our future

http://facebook.com/DrAnitaSengupta

What is Next After Mars?

What Does an Aerospace Engineer Do?

Europa the Ice Moon

Titan

What Does an Aerospace Engineer Do?

Enceladus

The Future is Mars

@Doctor_Astro

• Engineers and scientists make Mars exploration a reality

• Space Agencies from around the world are going to Mars

• All data are returned to Earth are publically available minutes after they arrive because this is our future

http://facebook.com/DrAnitaSengupta