NASA - Perseverance, Mars 2020 Rover : Discussion

[mleigh]

JPL had their open house this past weekend and I failed at taking notes, but this is what I remember.

The most interesting, and safer, option instead of the helicopter idea to me are the little origami robots designed to fold flat and stack on future missions to be deployed after landing (photo attached- the one on the right is a new skin they're developing). They do not currently have a mission assignment, but I could see these being on the 2020 Rover with a camera and microphone mounted on them. They have considered wheels based on the microspine climber (photo attached) allowing it to climb porous rock and making it a great candidate to send into caves on mars.

I was told by an engineer that they're still planning to drop core samples to be picked up by a later mission, they will not to be carried by the rover.

They discovered a bunch of extra fuel after landing Curiosity and jettisoning off to blow up a safe distance away. The 2020 will not carry as much fuel to bring the 2020 Rover to the surface allowing for a heavier rover.

The 2020 Rover is set to use the spare heat shield from (I think) Curiosity so that already exists and is in the clean room (photo attached). The other boxes with neon in the clean room are also for an upcoming mission, I believe they are solar panels of sorts but could be wrong.

[Star One]

Jeff Foust ‏@jeff_foust
Green: selection of rocket for Mars 2020 “very imminent”; once complete, can look at opportunities to fly cubesats with it. #SBAG

[baldusi]

Jeff Foust ‏@jeff_foust
Green: selection of rocket for Mars 2020 “very imminent”; once complete, can look at opportunities to fly cubesats with it. #SBAG

Thus Falcon Heavy is out of the question, Falcon 9 lack the performance and Delta IV Heavy is too expensive and lack nuclear rating. Which LV will they chose?

[Robotbeat]

Jeff Foust ‏@jeff_foust
Green: selection of rocket for Mars 2020 “very imminent”; once complete, can look at opportunities to fly cubesats with it. #SBAG

Thus Falcon Heavy is out of the question, Falcon 9 lack the performance and Delta IV Heavy is too expensive and lack nuclear rating. Which LV will they chose?

Are you certain that Falcon 9 lacks the performance? According to SpaceX's website, F9 gets 4020kg to Mars, while the MSL Curiosity total spacecraft TMI mass was 3893kg. Sounds like it should be capable.

Nuclear rating is another issue, which most certainly favors Atlas V. (As does launch reliability, although Falcon 9's 25/26--counting all at least partial successes--is superior to what Ariane 5's reliability was at 26 flights... 24/26, again counting all at least partial successes... So it's not as if SpaceX will not eventually be able to recover to an equivalent reliability rating... Provided they do well.)

It may also be that SpaceX has the option of using Falcon Heavy if it can be qualified in time, since Falcon Heavy would have almost all the same interfaces as Falcon 9.


So while Atlas V certainly has a leg up, here, it's not as if SpaceX has no chance whatsoever. So at the very least, NASA has a good bargaining position with ULA to get a good price for Atlas V.

[Jim]

So while Atlas V certainly has a leg up, here, it's not as if SpaceX has no chance whatsoever. So at the very least, NASA has a good bargaining position with ULA to get a good price for Atlas V.

There is no chance.  All the RTG handling GSE is based on Atlas V ops from JPL POV.  Not to mention the cooling mods to the Atlas V fairing, the VIF GSE for RTG installation, the two large doors 180 degrees apart, which negate horizontal ops (look where the F9 fairing split line is awhile horizontal)

[Star One]

So while Atlas V certainly has a leg up, here, it's not as if SpaceX has no chance whatsoever. So at the very least, NASA has a good bargaining position with ULA to get a good price for Atlas V.

There is no chance.  All the RTG handling GSE is based on Atlas V ops from JPL POV.  Not to mention the cooling mods to the Atlas V fairing, the VIF GSE for RTG installation, the two large doors 180 degrees apart, which negate horizontal ops (look where the F9 fairing split line is awhile horizontal)

Well when the Atlas V goes away at least one other launcher will need to be nuclear rated.

[Blackstar]

Watching the Facebook Live event on the 2020 rover and the sample expert said that they will drop off 5-10 collected samples into a little pile. So I guess this means that they will be dropping individual sample canisters, not groups of them.

[catdlr]

July 15, 2016
RELEASE 16-077
NASA's Next Mars Rover Progresses Toward 2020 Launch


After an extensive review process and passing a major development milestone, NASA is ready to proceed with final design and construction of its next Mars rover, currently targeted to launch in the summer of 2020 and arrive on the Red Planet in February 2021.

The Mars 2020 rover will investigate a region of Mars where the ancient environment may have been favorable for microbial life, probing the Martian rocks for evidence of past life. Throughout its investigation, it will collect samples of soil and rock and cache them on the surface for potential return to Earth by a future mission.

“The Mars 2020 rover is the first step in a potential multi-mission campaign to return carefully selected and sealed samples of Martian rocks and soil to Earth,” said Geoffrey Yoder, acting associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “This mission marks a significant milestone in NASA’s Journey to Mars – to determine whether life has ever existed on Mars, and to advance our goal of sending humans to the Red Planet.”

To reduce risk and provide cost savings, the 2020 rover will look much like its six-wheeled, one-ton predecessor, Curiosity, but with an array of new science instruments and enhancements to explore Mars as never before. For example, the rover will conduct the first investigation into the usability and availability of Martian resources, including oxygen, in preparation for human missions.

Mars 2020 will carry an entirely new subsystem to collect and prepare Martian rocks and soil samples that includes a coring drill on its arm and a rack of sample tubes. About 30 of these sample tubes will be deposited at select locations for return on a potential future sample-retrieval mission. In laboratories on Earth, specimens from Mars could be analyzed for evidence of past life on Mars and possible health hazards for future human missions.

Two science instruments mounted on the rover’s robotic arm will be used to search for signs of past life and determine where to collect samples by analyzing the chemical, mineral, physical and organic characteristics of Martian rocks. On the rover’s mast, two science instruments will provide high-resolution imaging and three types of spectroscopy for characterizing rocks and soil from a distance, also helping to determine which rock targets to explore up close.

A suite of sensors on the mast and deck will monitor weather conditions and the dust environment, and a ground-penetrating radar will assess sub-surface geologic structure.

The Mars 2020 rover will use the same sky crane landing system as Curiosity, but will have the ability to land in more challenging terrain with two enhancements, making more rugged sites eligible as safe landing candidates.

"By adding what’s known as range trigger, we can specify where we want the parachute to open, not just at what velocity we want it to open,” said Allen Chen, Mars 2020 entry, descent and landing lead at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. "That shrinks our landing area by nearly half."

Terrain-relative navigation on the new rover will use onboard analysis of downward-looking images taken during descent, matching them to a map that indicates zones designated unsafe for landing.

"As it is descending, the spacecraft can tell whether it is headed for one of the unsafe zones and divert to safe ground nearby,” said Chen. "With this capability, we can now consider landing areas with unsafe zones that previously would have disqualified the whole area. Also, we can land closer to a specific science destination, for less driving after landing."

There will be a suite of cameras and a microphone that will capture the never-before-seen or heard imagery and sounds of the entry, descent and landing sequence. Information from the descent cameras and microphone will provide valuable data to assist in planning future Mars landings, and make for thrilling video.

"Nobody has ever seen what a parachute looks like as it is opening in the Martian atmosphere,” said JPL's David Gruel, assistant flight system manager for the Mars 2020 mission. “So this will provide valuable engineering information.”

Microphones have flown on previous missions to Mars, including NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander in 2008, but never have actually been used on the surface of the Red Planet.

"This will be a great opportunity for the public to hear the sounds of Mars for the first time, and it could also provide useful engineering information," said Mars 2020 Deputy Project Manager Matt Wallace of JPL.

Once a mission receives preliminary approval, it must go through four rigorous technical and programmatic reviews – known as Key Decision Points (KDP) — to proceed through the phases of development prior to launch. Phase A involves concept and requirements definition, Phase B is preliminary design and technology development, Phase C is final design and fabrication, and Phase D is system assembly, testing, and launch. Mars 2020 has just passed its KDP-C milestone.

"Since Mars 2020 is leveraging the design and some spare hardware from Curiosity, a significant amount of the mission's heritage components have already been built during Phases A and B,” said George Tahu, Mars 2020 program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "With the KDP to enter Phase C completed, the project is proceeding with final design and construction of the new systems, as well as the rest of the heritage elements for the mission."

The Mars 2020 mission is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program. Driven by scientific discovery, the program currently includes two active rovers and three NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars. NASA also plans to launch a stationary Mars lander in 2018, InSight, to study the deep interior of Mars.

JPL manages the Mars 2020 project and the Mars Exploration Program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information about Mars 2020, visit:

http://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020

-end-

Picture :Mars 2020 rover design

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech  This image is from computer-assisted-design work on the Mars 2020 rover. The design leverages many successful features of NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in 2012, but also adds new science instruments and a sampling system to carry out new goals for the 2020 mission.

[catdlr]

NASA Does Facebook Live Update on the Next Mars Rover

NASA

Published on Jul 15, 2016
The team developing NASA's next rover mission to Mars has received a go-ahead from the agency to proceed with building the rover for launch in 2020. A July 15 Facebook Live event from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory featured updated news about the Mars 2020 rover and its mission. It will be almost identical to the Curiosity rover currently on Mars, but will have enhanced landing technology, the ability to prepare soil and rock samples for return to Earth and microphones to capture sound. The rover will look for signs of past life in a region of the Red Planet where the ancient environment was favorable for microbial life.

[Star One]

The planetary society empathise their cooperation on the microphone.

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/2016/20160715-mars-2020-kdp-c.html

[llanitedave]

Looks like the wheels have been modified a bit too.

[Star One]

Looks like the wheels have been modified a bit too.

Yep they have that's addressed in the article in my previous post.

[Star One]

Mars 2020 rover mission to cost more than $2 billion

NASA’s next flagship Mars mission, the Mars 2020 rover, moves into its next phase of development, agency officials say the mission will cost $2.1 billion, more than originally estimated for a mission that they argue will also be more capable than first planned.

http://spacenews.com/mars-2020-rover-mission-to-cost-more-than-2-billion/

[Star One]

Further to the above story.

Jeff Foust –  ‏@jeff_foust

At NAC science cmte meeting, Jim Green says NASA “holding the line” on costs for Mars 2020; new cost estimate reflects add’l capabilities.

Also from Jeff Foust Twitter's Green expects it to launch on the Atlas V. (551 I assume)

Green also says Mars 2020 will launch on an Atlas 5; expected (MSL also launched on an Atlas 5), but hadn’t heard formal announcement yet.

[Jim]

Also from Jeff Foust Twitter's Green expects it to launch on the Atlas V. (551 I assume)

MSL launched on a 541

[Star One]

Also from Jeff Foust Twitter's Green expects it to launch on the Atlas V. (551 I assume)

MSL launched on a 541

Though based on Curiosity is there sufficient differences that may require the use of a different faring?

[russianhalo117]

Also from Jeff Foust Twitter's Green expects it to launch on the Atlas V. (551 I assume)

MSL launched on a 541

Though based on Curiosity is there sufficient differences that may require the use of a different faring?

you mean launcher config.
MSL(-1) is baseline for MSL-2
MSL-2 (aka 2020 rover) MSL-2 didn't "really" shed any of the MSL-1 features and instruments, rather these MSL-1 features and instruments have been upgraded and are joined by newly added instruments resulting in a larger rover mass.

[Jim]

Also from Jeff Foust Twitter's Green expects it to launch on the Atlas V. (551 I assume)

MSL launched on a 541

Though based on Curiosity is there sufficient differences that may require the use of a different faring?

The rover has no direct interface with the launch vehicle

[ZachS09]

Does Mars 2020 weigh more than Curiosity? I ask that because the extra weight could relate to the upgraded equipment on the rover.

[AegeanBlue]

Does Mars 2020 weigh more than Curiosity? I ask that because the extra weight could relate to the upgraded equipment on the rover.

They said on the facebook live update that it will be 1050 kg, about 150 kg heavier than Curiosity