WASHINGTON – NASA and three international partners have signed an agreement to collaborate on a proposed mission to search for ice deposits beneath the surface of Mars, a precursor to human missions there.
In a Feb. 3 statement, NASA said it had signed a “ letter of intent ” with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), 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 possible roles and responsibilities.
NASA introduced the mission concept a year ago in its budget proposal for the fiscal year 2021. The spacecraft would launch in 2026 and go into orbit around Mars, using a radar to search for deposits of ice beneath the surface of Mars that would can be studied by future missions to the surface of Mars, including human missions.
In its statement, NASA did not disclose the possible roles of the international partners in the mission. However, at previous advisory committee meetings, agency officials said CSA would provide the radar instrument, JAXA the space bus, and ASI the communications subsystem for the spacecraft. NASA would be responsible for overall mission management as well as launching the spacecraft.
“This innovative Mars Ice Mapper partner model combines our global experience and enables cost-sharing across the board to make this mission more feasible for all interested parties,” said Jim Watzin, a senior NASA advisor who oversees Mars mission planning. supports and former bureau chief Mars Exploration Program, said in the statement.
NASA has not provided a formal cost estimate for its portion of the mission, but Watzin said at a November meeting of a committee supporting the ongoing decade of research into planetary science that the agency had estimated its share of the mission will cost $ 185 million .
At that meeting, Watzin said Mars Ice Mapper was an essential part of long-term planning for human Mars missions, identifying locations where water ice could exist within 5-10 meters of the surface and thus accessible to manned expeditions. “The Mars Ice Mapper mission was identified as a vital precursor mission needed to get that crucial information so we could decide where to go for the first human mission, as well as how to prepare for that mission,” said he.
The mission has met with some skepticism from Mars scientists, who question the priority of an ice mapping mission over other scientific objectives. Watzin said at that November meeting that Mars Ice Mapper is an “ exploration precursor mission ” that also has scientific benefits, compared to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission originally launched to support the Constellation’s exploration effort, but is now part is part of NASA’s planetary science program. .
In the announcement of the letter of intent, NASA said that in the next phase of the Mars Ice Mapper study, the partners will “explore mission sharing capabilities.” “All scientific data from the mission would be made available to the international scientific community for both planetary science and Mars exploration.”
Mapping water ice near the surface could reveal a hitherto hidden portion of the Martian hydrosphere and the layers above it, which could help uncover the history of environmental changes on Mars and enable us to answer basic questions about whether Mars ever was. home to microbial life or perhaps still, ”Eric Ianson, director of the Mars Exploration Program, said in the statement.
At a Jan. 27 meeting of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group, Ianson said that, in addition to the letter of intent, NASA was preparing for a “pre-acquisition strategy meeting” in the near future. That meeting will decide on a main center for the Mars Ice Mapper mission and other issues before formally commencing development on the mission.
Watzin, speaking at the same meeting, expected a formal memorandum of understanding between the agencies participating in the mission to be ready by the end of spring or early summer. “That will bring the mission team together and then we can seriously move forward with its implementation,” he said.
The NASA announcement of the letter of intent included an illustration of Mars Ice Mapper communicating with three spacecraft orbiting Mars, acting as communication relays to Earth. The announcement did not address these relays, but agency officials have previously spoken of developing a communications satellite network on Mars, perhaps through public-private partnerships, to support Mars Ice Mapper.