WASHINGTON – NASA and three international partners have signed an agreement to work together on a proposed mission to search for ice deposits below the surface of Mars, a precursor to human missions there.
In a statement dated February 3, NASA said it had signed a “declaration of intent” with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the Italian space agency ASI regarding the International Mars Ice Mapper. Under that agreement, the agencies will study concepts for the mission and potential roles and responsibilities.
NASA introduced the mission concept a year ago in its budget proposal for the fiscal year 2021. The spacecraft would launch from 2026 onwards in orbit around Mars and use a radar to search for ice deposits below the Martian surface that could be studied by future missions to the Martian surface, including human missions.
In its statement, NASA did not disclose the potential roles of the international partners on the mission. At previous meetings of advisory committees, however, agency officials said CSA would provide the radar instrument, JAXA the spacecraft bus and ASI the communications subsystem for the spacecraft. NASA would be responsible for the overall mission management and for providing the launch of the spacecraft.
“This innovative Mars Ice Mapper partnership model combines our global experience and provides cost-sharing across the board to make this mission achievable for all interested parties,” said Jim Watzin, a senior NASA adviser on Mars mission planning and former head of the agency supports. Mars Exploration Program, the statement said.
NASA has not yet drawn up a formal cost estimate for its part of the mission, but Watzin said at a November meeting of a committee supporting the ongoing survey of the planetary scientific decade, the agency estimated that its stake in the mission will cost $ 185 million.
At the meeting, Watzin said that Mars Ice Mapper is an essential part of the long-term planning for human Mars missions, by identifying places where water ice can exist within 5-10 meters of the surface and thus become accessible through crew cruises. “The Mars Ice Mapper mission has been identified as an essential precursor mission needed to gather the critical information so we can decide where to go for the first human mission, and also how to prepare for the mission, “he said.
The mission faced skepticism from Mars scientists, who questioned the priority of an ice-map mission over other scientific objectives. Watzin said at the November meeting that Mars Ice Mapper is a “precursor mission” that also has scientific benefits, comparing it to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission originally launched to support the Constellation lunar reconnaissance effort, but which now part of NASA’s planetary science program. .
In its announcement of the statement of intent, NASA said the partners would “explore mission-sharing opportunities” in the next phase of the Mars Ice Mapper study. “All scientific data of the mission will be made available to the international scientific community for both planetary science and Mars exploration.”
‘The mapping of ice on the surface of the water would reveal a still hidden part of the Mars hydrosphere and the layering above, which could help uncover the history of environmental change on Mars and to our ability to answer fundamental questions to answer whether Mars was ever the home of microbial life or can still be today, ”said Eric Ianson, director of the Mars exploration program, in the statement.
At a Jan. 27 meeting of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group, Ianson said NASA, in addition to declaring intent, was preparing for a “pre-acquisition strategy meeting” in the near future. The meeting will decide on a main center for the Mars Ice Mapper mission and other issues before the mission formally begins.
Watzin, speaking at the same meeting, expected a formal memorandum of understanding between the agencies participating in the mission to be ready by late spring or early summer. “It will bring the mission team together and then we can start implementing this in all seriousness,” he said.
The NASA announcement of the statement of intent included an illustration of Mars Ice Mapper communicating with three spacecraft in a Mars orbit, and serving as communications relays back to Earth. The announcements did not discuss these relays, but agency officials had previously discussed the development of a communications satellite network at Mars, perhaps through public-private partnerships to support Mars Ice Mapper.