Upcoming Mars missions

[mcgyver]

EU: Exomars 2 - 2020  - thread
China:  Unnamed - 2020 - link
USA: Mars 2020 - 2020  - link
United Arab Emirates: Hope  - 2021 -  link

[meberbs]

The UAE mission is also 2020. Launch windows to Mars are every 2 years. 2021 is the arrival date.

All of the missions listed would be arriving in early 2021 due to the travel time after launch in mid 2020.

[Vahe231991]

China's Tianwen-1 mission and Mars 2020 mission (which carried the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter) launched in 2020, while the UAE's Hope space probe was launched on July 19, 2020, and reached areocentric orbit on February 9, 2021.

I found these additional upcoming missions to Mars:
* Mangalyaan-2 - to be launched in 2024
* Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) - to be launched in 2024
* EscaPADE - to be launched in 2024
* Tera-hertz Explorer (TEREX) - planned for mid 2020s
* Kazachok - 2024
* ExoMars - 2028

[Zed_Noir]

<snip>
I found these additional upcoming missions to Mars:
* Mangalyaan-2 - to be launched in 2024
* Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) - to be launched in 2024
* EscaPADE - to be launched in 2024
* Tera-hertz Explorer (TEREX) - planned for mid 2020s
* Kazachok - 2024
* ExoMars - 2028

Maybe a SpaceX Mars precursor flyby mission near the end of the 2024 launch window. Presuming there is no major hiccups with Starship development.

[Blackstar]

<snip>
I found these additional upcoming missions to Mars:
* Mangalyaan-2 - to be launched in 2024
* Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) - to be launched in 2024
* EscaPADE - to be launched in 2024
* Tera-hertz Explorer (TEREX) - planned for mid 2020s
* Kazachok - 2024
* ExoMars - 2028

Maybe a SpaceX Mars precursor flyby mission near the end of the 2024 launch window. Presuming there is no major hiccups with Starship development.

We'll come back and ask you about that at the end of 2024.

[Star One]

&lt;snip&gt;
I found these additional upcoming missions to Mars:
* Mangalyaan-2 - to be launched in 2024
* Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) - to be launched in 2024
* EscaPADE - to be launched in 2024
* Tera-hertz Explorer (TEREX) - planned for mid 2020s
* Kazachok - 2024
* ExoMars - 2028

Maybe a SpaceX Mars precursor flyby mission near the end of the 2024 launch window. Presuming there is no major hiccups with Starship development.

2034 is probably a more realistic date than 2024.

[Zed_Noir]

&lt;snip&gt;
I found these additional upcoming missions to Mars:
* Mangalyaan-2 - to be launched in 2024
* Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) - to be launched in 2024
* EscaPADE - to be launched in 2024
* Tera-hertz Explorer (TEREX) - planned for mid 2020s
* Kazachok - 2024
* ExoMars - 2028

Maybe a SpaceX Mars precursor flyby mission near the end of the 2024 launch window. Presuming there is no major hiccups with Starship development.

2034 is probably a more realistic date than 2024.

When SpaceX bring the HLS lander and supporting tankers into service means that they could do a Mars flyby as well. So your 2034 date is too pessimistic IMO. Since I expected NASA will have people on the Lunar surface before 2030.

[Star One]

<snip>
I found these additional upcoming missions to Mars:
* Mangalyaan-2 - to be launched in 2024
* Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) - to be launched in 2024
* EscaPADE - to be launched in 2024
* Tera-hertz Explorer (TEREX) - planned for mid 2020s
* Kazachok - 2024
* ExoMars - 2028

Maybe a SpaceX Mars precursor flyby mission near the end of the 2024 launch window. Presuming there is no major hiccups with Starship development.

2034 is probably a more realistic date than 2024.

When SpaceX bring the HLS lander and supporting tankers into service means that they could do a Mars flyby as well. So your 2034 date is too pessimistic IMO. Since I expected NASA will have people on the Lunar surface before 2030.

And your initial date was far, far too optimistic IMHO.

[Dalhousie]

China's Tianwen-1 mission and Mars 2020 mission (which carried the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter) launched in 2020, while the UAE's Hope space probe was launched on July 19, 2020, and reached areocentric orbit on February 9, 2021.

I found these additional upcoming missions to Mars:
* Mangalyaan-2 - to be launched in 2024
* Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) - to be launched in 2024
* EscaPADE - to be launched in 2024
* Tera-hertz Explorer (TEREX) - planned for mid 2020s
* Kazachok - 2024
* ExoMars - 2028

Is there any evidence that Kazachok will continue as a stand alone mission?

Additional missions:

* ESA/NASA sample return lander and Earth return missions ~2028
* Chinese sample return mission ~2028

[Dalhousie]

China's Tianwen-1 mission and Mars 2020 mission (which carried the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter) launched in 2020, while the UAE's Hope space probe was launched on July 19, 2020, and reached areocentric orbit on February 9, 2021.

I found these additional upcoming missions to Mars:
* Mangalyaan-2 - to be launched in 2024
* Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) - to be launched in 2024
* EscaPADE - to be launched in 2024
* Tera-hertz Explorer (TEREX) - planned for mid 2020s
* Kazachok - 2024
* ExoMars - 2028

Is there any evidence that Kazachok will continue as a stand alone mission?

Additional missions:

* ESA/NASA sample return lander and Earth return missions ~2028
* Chinese sample return mission ~2028

[Vahe231991]

China's Tianwen-1 mission and Mars 2020 mission (which carried the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter) launched in 2020, while the UAE's Hope space probe was launched on July 19, 2020, and reached areocentric orbit on February 9, 2021.

I found these additional upcoming missions to Mars:
* Mangalyaan-2 - to be launched in 2024
* Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) - to be launched in 2024
* EscaPADE - to be launched in 2024
* Tera-hertz Explorer (TEREX) - planned for mid 2020s
* Kazachok - 2024
* ExoMars - 2028

Is there any evidence that Kazachok will continue as a stand alone mission?

Additional missions:

* ESA/NASA sample return lander and Earth return missions ~2028
* Chinese sample return mission ~2028

The Kazachok lander could launch as a stand alone Mars mission provided that there is a new Russian Mars rover under development because EU sanctions on Russia have left the Rosalind Franklin rover without a launch platform.

[Dalhousie]

China's Tianwen-1 mission and Mars 2020 mission (which carried the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter) launched in 2020, while the UAE's Hope space probe was launched on July 19, 2020, and reached areocentric orbit on February 9, 2021.

I found these additional upcoming missions to Mars:
* Mangalyaan-2 - to be launched in 2024
* Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) - to be launched in 2024
* EscaPADE - to be launched in 2024
* Tera-hertz Explorer (TEREX) - planned for mid 2020s
* Kazachok - 2024
* ExoMars - 2028

Is there any evidence that Kazachok will continue as a stand alone mission?

Additional missions:

* ESA/NASA sample return lander and Earth return missions ~2028
* Chinese sample return mission ~2028

The Kazachok lander could launch as a stand alone Mars mission provided that there is a new Russian Mars rover under development because EU sanctions on Russia have left the Rosalind Franklin rover without a launch platform.

Even without a rover and with European instruments removed it still provides a useful payload.

•   Meteorological package (MTK)
•   A magnetometer (MAIGRET)
•   A set of four cameras (TSPP)
•   An IR Fourier spectrometer (FAST)
•   Active Detection of Radiation of Nuclei-ExoMars (ADRON-EM)
•   Multi-channel Diode-Laser Spectrometer (M-DLS)
•   Radio thermometer (RAT-M) for soil temperatures
•   Dust particle size, impact, and atmospheric charging instrument suite (PK)
•   A seismometer (SEM)
•   Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (MGAK)

[Vahe231991]

China is planning to launch a second Mars mission, the Tianwen-3, in 2028:
https://spacenews.com/china-aims-to-bring-mars-samples-to-earth-2-years-before-nasa-esa-mission/

[Blackstar]

https://www.leonarddavid.com/nasa-mars-exploration-report-calls-for-program-paradigm-shifts/


https://assets.science.nasa.gov/content/dam/science/psd/solar-system/mars/campaigns/mars-future-plan/20241210_Mars_Future_Plan_Final.pdf

[Blackstar]

https://www.leonarddavid.com/enter-lightship-europes-low-cost-mars-satellite-platform/


Enter LightShip – Europe’s Low-cost Mars satellite Platform
By Leonard David
January 21st, 2025

The European Space Agency is sparking a new initiative, one that aims at small-scale missions to explore the Red Planet.

An element of the ESA LightShip propulsion tug concept is engaging select groups to independently scope out what a small, low-cost Mars satellite platform looks like as a LightShip passenger.

[StraumliBlight]

ESA: Towards low-cost missions to Mars [Jan 21]

Two decades after Mars Express, ESA is returning to small-scale missions aimed at exploring the Red Planet. With a completely different landscape of technologies available this time around, new opportunities for interplanetary missions open up. As part of ESA's LightShip initiative, four consortia will conduct independent parallel studies to define what a small low cost Mars satellite-platform could look like as a LightShip passenger.

A shuttle between orbits
Currently in the feasibility and definition stage, ESA's LightShip propulsive tug, or interplanetary transfer service, takes away two of the constraints that would make low-cost missions to Mars extremely difficult – it provides the propulsion needed for its passenger spacecraft to transfer to Mars and enter Mars' orbit, and hosts the Mars Communication and Navigation Infrastructure (MARCONI) offering a dedicated data relay service.

The four consortia – led by Argotec, Deimos Space, Politecnico di Milano with SITAEL, and Redwire respectively – will explore the potential of passenger spacecraft platforms that could be delivered to Mars by the LightShip propulsive tug. The studies are funded through the Preparation element of ESA's Basic Activities.

Affordable access to Mars
"ESA's LightShip concept aims to open up access to Mars for a wider community than is usually the case," explains Claire Parfitt, Mars Exploration Study Team Lead in ESA's Directorate of Human and Robotic Exploration and technical officer of the activity.

"It's very exciting for us to be able to provide this opportunity, since building spacecraft for Mars missions is usually considered a task for large system integrators. Our member states asked for a wider participation in the exploration domain, and we're really glad to have been able to help facilitate that. Moreover, the nature of LightShip is such that it makes us open to international partnerships as well."

"Normally, we look at the whole mission, which makes this study a little unusual – this time we are only focusing on the platform, without any payload. That's because we really want to understand what the small and low-cost platform capabilities are in Europe and how they need to be modified for the Mars environment. The next step will be to start thinking at mission level."

Mars and beyond
"This study fits in with the industrial Phase A/B1 for the LightShip-1 mission and will help to inform the passenger interfaces that will be needed. The Explore2040 strategy for future Mars missions starts with LightShip," Claire adds. "In 2026, we plan to use the results from this study to investigate full exploration mission concepts. Those concepts could be future passenger candidates for LightShip."

"Our vision doesn't stop there – in the main LightShip study, we are looking at use cases for  missions to the Moon, asteroids, and other destinations too."

[Don2]

Lightship looks like a technology in search of a problem. Getting to Mars doesn't require high delta-v. Getting from the capture orbit down to low Mars orbit does, but you can do that with aerobraking.

A better use for this kind of platform is visiting asteroids. The Japanese Hayabusa spacecraft are very interesting small sample return missions enabled by electric propulsion. Dawn and Psyche both use solar electric propulsion to orbit main belt asteroids. There are some main belt comets which might be similar to the left overs of a population of icy asteroids which brought Earth its water. This theory could be tested by measuring the isotope ratios of the water vapor that they emit. Also,  the Lucy mission might find an interesting Trojan asteroid worthy of follow up.

Another possibility would be to use this as the basis of a low cost interplanetary mission launched on a Vega-E.

[vjkane]

A better use for this kind of platform is visiting asteroids.
Another possibility would be to use this as the basis of a low cost interplanetary mission launched on a Vega-E.

I think they are in full agreement with you: ""Our vision doesn't stop there – in the main LightShip study, we are looking at use cases for  missions to the Moon, asteroids, and other destinations too.""

[vjkane]

If ESA and NASA's science programs continue to cooperate, Lightship or something like it could be the basis for a number of missions that address both agencies' desire for more rapid low cost missions to Mars and elsewhere.