ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter NASA/ESA ~ 2016

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MeteorWayne

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http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/au ... ssion.html

WASHINGTON -- NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have embarked on a joint program to explore Mars in the coming decades and selected the five science instruments for the first mission.

The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, scheduled to launch in 2016, is the first of three joint robotic missions to the Red Planet. It will study the chemical makeup of the Martian atmosphere with a 1000-fold increase in sensitivity over previous Mars orbiters. The mission will focus on trace gases, including methane, which could be potentially geochemical or biological in origin and be indicators for the existence of life on Mars. The mission also will serve as an additional communications relay for Mars surface missions beginning in 2018.

"Independently, NASA and ESA have made amazing discoveries up to this point," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "Working together, we'll reduce duplication of effort, expand our capabilities and see results neither ever could have achieved alone."

NASA and ESA invited scientists worldwide to propose the spacecraft's instruments. The five selected were from 19 proposals submitted in January. Both agencies evaluated the submissions and chose those with the best science value and lowest risk.

The selection of the instruments begins the first phase of the new NASA-ESA alliance for future ventures to Mars. The instruments and the principal investigators are:

-- Mars Atmosphere Trace Molecule Occultation Spectrometer -- A spectrometer designed to detect very low concentrations of the molecular components of the Martian atmosphere: Paul Wennberg, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena Calif.
-- High Resolution Solar Occultation and Nadir Spectrometer -- A spectrometer designed to detect traces of the components of the Martian atmosphere and to map where they are on the surface: Ann C. Vandaele, Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, Brussels, Belgium.
-- ExoMars Climate Sounder -- An infrared radiometer that provides daily global data on dust, water vapor and other materials to provide the context for data analysis from the spectrometers: John Schofield, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif.
-- High Resolution Color Stereo Imager -- A camera that provides four-color stereo imaging at a resolution of two million pixels over an 8.5 km swath: Alfred McEwen, University of Arizona.
-- Mars Atmospheric Global Imaging Experiment -- A wide-angle, multi-spectral camera to provide global images of Mars in support of the other instruments: Bruce Cantor, Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif.
 
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alpha_centauri

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Just looking through the instruments now, here's a Caltech release on theirs with some interesting quotes,

Mars Atmospheric Trace Molecule Occultation Spectrometer (MATMOS)

http://media.caltech.edu/press_releases/13368
Caltech, Canadian Space Agency Awarded NASA Project to Develop Spectrometer Headed to Mars

"If you take the spectra fast," says Geoffrey Toon, senior research scientist at JPL and a visiting associate in planetary sciences at Caltech, "you can measure the gas abundance at many different heights above the planet —70 measurements as the sun rises, and 70 as it sets."

.........

MATMOS will be so exquisitely sensitive, says Wennberg, that it will be able to measure the concentrations of these gases down to parts per trillion.

"We did a calculation which shows that the microbial community found in three cows' bellies would produce an amount of methane that, in the Mars atmosphere, would be observable by MATMOS," says Mark Allen, principal scientist at JPL and a visiting associate in planetary sciences at Caltech.

:shock: !!!!!!!
 
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scottb50

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Not that it isn't a major improvement over what we already have, but I would still rather see the money put into a manned mission that could return exponentially more data in weeks then an orbiter could in years. That human can't live on Mars is not an issue, proven by multiple landers and rovers eliminates that argument, more unmanned missions just waste money that could be used to send people.
 
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robotical

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Scottb50 - An astronaut couldn't really achieve any more than a probe for orbital measurements.
 
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MeteorWayne

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Guys, this forum is Missions and Launches, so this topic is the specific mission, and discussion about it. While the value of it is a debatable topic, if the the posts wander too far off from the mission itself, I may move that part to SB&T. Since it's 6 years out, I will allow plenty of latitude (and longitude :) ) in the discussion before taking any action.

MW
 
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kg

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How often would MATMOS be able to make an observation, how often will ExoMars from the day side to night etc...
Also how close will it be able to detect the source of what it finds? I seems like the sunlight will be passing through hundreds of miles of atmosphere as it takes a reading. If I remember corectly the methane component was somewhat fleeting in its appearence. Would MATMOS need to make a large number of observations to narrow down a source?
 
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scottb50

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kg":3sryqh1d said:
How often would MATMOS be able to make an observation, how often will ExoMars from the day side to night etc...
Also how close will it be able to detect the source of what it finds? I seems like the sunlight will be passing through hundreds of miles of atmosphere as it takes a reading. If I remember corectly the methane component was somewhat fleeting in its appearence. Would MATMOS need to make a large number of observations to narrow down a source?

I would think if we have enough money for missions like this we must have more then enough for a manned mission. Four or five launches to LEO for assembly and a few for propellant, outfitting and crew flights would add a couple so maybe 10 Falcon Nines.
 
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kg

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scottb50":1c3b507a said:
kg":1c3b507a said:
How often would MATMOS be able to make an observation...,

I would think if we have enough money for missions like this....

I'm not sure why I was quoted here. I was simply asking a question about how this very cool and worthy sounding device is going to operate.
 
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MeteorWayne

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scottb50":2ho0lws6 said:
kg":2ho0lws6 said:
How often would MATMOS be able to make an observation, how often will ExoMars from the day side to night etc...
Also how close will it be able to detect the source of what it finds? I seems like the sunlight will be passing through hundreds of miles of atmosphere as it takes a reading. If I remember corectly the methane component was somewhat fleeting in its appearence. Would MATMOS need to make a large number of observations to narrow down a source?

I would think if we have enough money for missions like this we must have more then enough for a manned mission. Four or five launches to LEO for assembly and a few for propellant, outfitting and crew flights would add a couple so maybe 10 Falcon Nines.

This is Missions and Launches. Please stick to the topic of this specific mission; other comments about future manned missions belong in Space Business and Technology.
 
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scottb50

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kg":11m4hrzc said:
I'm not sure why I was quoted here. I was simply asking a question about how this very cool and worthy sounding device is going to operate.

I apologize. I was commenting on the cost of orbiters and got carried away.
 
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