Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science - The Envelope Please: Choosing the 2007 Mars Scout Mission, Part 2

Episode Date: August 4, 2003

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This is Planetary Radio. Music Hi everyone, I'm Matt Kaplan. Last week we heard from Peter Smith and Lori Leshin. Now it's time to meet the other two finalists for NASA's Mars Scout mission in 2007. Joel Levine is principal investigator for Ares, the Mars airplane, while Mark Allen heads the Marvel Orbiter team.

Later, astrobots Biff Starling and Sandy Moondust will check in from the Mars Exploration Rovers. It's a jam-packed show, and we'll begin it with Emily's explanation of Jupiter's psychedelic colors. That's Planetary Radio. Far out, man. Hi, I'm Emily Lakdawalla with questions and answers.

A listener asked, What causes the different colored bands in Saturn's and Jupiter's atmospheres? Jupiter and Saturn are giant balls of rapidly rotating gases. Their atmospheres are heated from above by the sun and from below by internal heat sources. The contrast between their inside and outside temperatures atmospheres are heated from above by the Sun and from below by internal heat sources. The contrast between their inside and outside temperatures causes powerful currents to rise through Jupiter's and Saturn's atmospheres. These currents can carry interesting chemical compounds from the planet's depths to higher levels. As in the Earth's atmosphere, the

rotation of the planets causes their atmospheric circulation to organize into horizontal bands. On Jupiter and Saturn, the lighter colored bands are called zones and the darker ones are called belts. Zones are thought to be regions of upwelling air, which become capped by bright white cirrus clouds made not of water but instead of ammonia. Belts, on the other hand, are thought to be regions of downwelling. Because there are fewer ammonia clouds over belts, we can see deeper into the atmosphere. What causes the colors that we can see in Jupiter's and Saturn's belts?

Stay tuned to Planetary Radio to find out. As I'm recording this, NASA HQ is still struggling with a tough decision. Which of four unique finalists will be named as the first Mars Scout mission, slated for a 2007 launch? By the time you hear this, that decision may have been made. We'll do our best to bring back the head of the winning team. Last week, we learned about the Phoenix lander and the SCIM atmospheric sample return missions.

Let's meet the heads of the remaining two teams. Joel Levine is principal investigator for ARIES, the Aerial Regional Scale Environmental Survey, possibly better known as the Mars Airplane, and that's exactly what this finalist is. Joel spoke to us from his office at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia. Joel Levine, would you say that you have the most ambitious of the Mars Scout mission candidates? Matt, I think it's fair to say we have one of the most comprehensive science investigations of Mars.

Ares will investigate the atmosphere, the climate, the surface, and the interior of Mars from a vantage point of only one to two kilometers above the surface and will make the measurements over regional scale distances of hundreds of kilometers. And I think you've just answered the question, why an airplane? Why an airplane? A powered, controlled airplane is a unique platform to study Mars the way it's never been studied before. It fills the spatial measurement gap between orbiters that travel several hundred kilometers above the surface, which get global coverage but don't get very high spatial resolution,

and the lander-rover combination on the surface that get very high spatial resolution, and the land rover combination on the surface that get very high spatial resolution but have very limited distance to cover. And, in fact, you have a nice graphic on your website. Of course, we'll be providing the address of that website on the webpage that accompanies this radio program at planetary.org. and he's this radio program at planetary.org. That graphic actually very literally shows this so far missing segment in Mars exploration that you've just described. Exactly, Matt. We think that this is a spatial scale one to two kilometers above the surface over regional scale distances

that we have not had up to now in planetary exploration. Talk about the mission profile. We should maybe say up front that this is an airplane that doesn't land on Mars until basically it has finished its mission? That's correct. The airplane will not land on Mars until it runs out of fuel and it impacts the surface of Mars. We have several scientific themes, and we have maximized the use of this powered and controlled airplane to bring back the greatest science return. We are going to study

crustal magnetism in the southern ancient highlands of Mars. The discovery in 1999 by Mars Global Surveyor of strong magnetism in the crust of Mars was a surprise and very puzzling discovery to the scientific community. As you know, Mars has no general planetary magnetic field. So the discovery by Mars Global Surveyor of crustal magnetism came as a great surprise. global surveyor of crustal magnetism came as a great surprise. We are going to fly over the regions of crustal magnetism using the same techniques employed on Earth for decades for aeromagnetic studies of crustal magnetism on the Earth. We will fly what's referred to as a racetrack pattern, where we come up with three parallel tracks. Those three parallel tracks will provide information on the actual origin and source of the crustal magnetism

on Mars. We will also make very high spatial resolution measurements of crustal magnetism. So far, the Mars Global Surveyor measurements were taken at 400 kilometers and at 100 kilometers. The resolution of the crustal magnetism features increases as you get closer to the surface. When we went from 400 kilometers to 100 kilometers, that was a factor of four in distance, and the spatial resolution increased by a factor of four. Well, we're going to go to about one kilometer altitude, so we'll have about a hundred increase in spatial resolution. And for the first time, study these features in great spatial detail.

And Ares, the Mars airplane, carries a camera as well. Ares carries a spectrometer and a camera. The camera will be used to photograph the geological features we fly over, as well as to reconstruct the flight path. And the spectrometer will be used to study the composition of the crust, the detailed mineralogy as we fly. Now, this area of crustal magnetism in the ancient southern highlands is believed to have been formed very early in the history of Mars. The regions became magnetized

where Mars had a magnetic field probably in the first few hundred million years of the existence of Mars, 4.6 billion years ago. So by flying over these regions of strong crustal magnetism, we will measure and we will obtain spectroscopic measurements of the oldest crust on Mars, dating back perhaps to the very formation of Mars. And what's interesting, Matt, is that on the Earth, the oldest rock is only 3.6 billion, even though the Earth and Mars are both 4.6 billion. The reason there's a billion-year gap in our understanding of Earth is because of plate tectonics and the shifting of the crust. The crust is recycled.

So there is no geological record of the early crust on Earth. It's all been recycled. On Mars, however, that record, it is there in the ancient highlands, and we will determine the chemical composition and mineralogy of the primordial or primitive crustal material in the solar system. Our time is flying by. Let me ask you a little bit more about the airplane itself. It is a beautiful machine, personal opinion here, of course, but what also surprised me about it on your website is how big it is. It's a big airplane.

Yes, it is a big airplane. The wingspan is 22 feet, and the plane is about 16 feet long. It's about three-quarters the size of a Cessna 170, so it is not a small airplane. In fact, it is easier to design and fly a large airplane. We can get much better lift with this design, the size, the wings are large, the airfoil is very efficient, and it's been designed to maximize its flight through the atmosphere of Mars. You had a big time last September, September 2002, running a test of this concept.

We actually did, at 103,000 feet, a deployment of the airplane, a deployment and pullout. The airplane will be folded up. There will be one fold in each wing, and the tail folds over the body of the plane, and that's how it travels to Mars. As it enters the atmosphere of Mars, the aeroshell enters the atmosphere with a folded plane in the aeroshell, and the key thing is for the successful deployment of the plane, we tried a deployment at 103,000 feet using a helium balloon.

We sent a half-scale model up to 103,000 feet over Tillamook, Oregon, last September 19, 2002, and we deployed on command from Earth under density and pressure comparable to the Mars atmosphere. And I am very proud and pleased to say it was 100% successful. The airplane deployed. It got level flight. It unfolded. Well, first it unfolded. The wings unfolded. The tail unfolded. And then the airplane flew level at 103,000 feet right on the edge of space

and simulating the atmospheric conditions we will encounter in 2008 when Ares enters the atmosphere of Mars. 2008 when Ares enters the atmosphere of Mars. And apparently this test flight was, the plane was acting entirely, for all intents and purposes, autonomously until, I guess, one of your team actually took over for the landing. That's correct. We had prearranged for the control devices on the wings and on the tail to provide level flight after the plane unfolded. And we made a video. We have a tail camera in the tail of the plane, recorded the whole event,

just as we will, Matt, when we fly through Mars. We will have a video camera in the tail of the plane, and we will record the mission as we fly, and we will transmit these pictures, these videos, back to Earth so that the plane, and we will record the mission as we fly, and we will transmit these pictures, these videos back to Earth so that the public, the American public, in fact the world, will accompany us on the first airplane ride on another planet. Joel Levine, we only have a few seconds left. How does it feel now, just a few days away, from hearing whether the Ares Mars airplane will be the choice for the Mars Scout mission. Well, we're very excited. We're also very optimistic.

We think that we will rewrite the textbook on our understanding of Mars. In addition to crustal magnetism and crustal material, we will also study atmospheric chemistry. We will search for the presence of gases of biogenic origin. or chemistry. We will search for the presence of gases of biogenic origin. We will follow the water in the atmosphere of Mars and see the role of water in the photochemical production of trace gases. So it's a very complex and a very varied mission. We're excited and we're looking forward to the announcement. Joel, as we're doing with all of the candidates, we wish you luck and we look forward to talking to you again, whatever the outcome of this one is. Thank you very much, Matt, and we look forward to talking to you again. That was Joel Levine, Principal Investigator for the Ares

Mars Airplane Mission Proposal. I'll be back in a minute with the fourth and final Mars Scout candidate, Mark Allen of JPL. Stay with us. We sponsor the search for life on other worlds, and we're building the first ever solar sail. You can learn about these adventures and exciting new discoveries from space exploration in the Planetary Report. The Planetary Report is the Society's full-color magazine. It's just one of many member benefits. You can learn more by calling 1-877-PLANETS. That's toll-free, 1-877-752-6387.

And you can catch up on space exploration news and developments at our exciting and informative website, planetarysociety.org. The Planetary Society, exploring new worlds. Atmospheric chemist Mark Allen of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab is principal investigator for MARVEL, the Mars Volcanic Emission and Life Scout. It's based on the extremely successful Odyssey spacecraft already circling Mars. The infrared spectrometer on MARVEL is so sensitive, it could detect telltale signs of life coming from as few as three cows.

Not that he expects to find a small herd of Guernseys on the surface of Mars, but cows belch methane, methane gas produced by the bacteria in their gut. Marvel would find methane and many other gases by looking sideways through the Martian atmosphere at a handy natural source of light, the rising or setting sun. We actually sample many different levels of the atmosphere. And it's extremely sensitive, and since we know the spectral signature of the sun very accurately, you're going to be able to detect what kinds of gases. We can detect any gas that's in the atmosphere

that has a strong absorption band in the wavelength range which we cover, which is the whole mid-infrared wavelength range. So any gas in the atmosphere of sufficient abundance, we will be able to detect. We're trying to do a broad survey and an unbiased survey so that we will detect anything that's there, and hopefully we will detect something that wouldn't be there except if Mars were habitable and even inhabited. Now, we've already mentioned that your acronym MARVEL stands for Mars Volcanic Emission and

Life Scout. How do volcanoes work into this? We feel that the probability that Mars has life is equal to the probability that Mars ever had life, as long as Mars is habitable. Life is very robust, and as long as there's a place that even supports the most minimal conditions for life, life will persist in those eco-niches. So the question comes whether Mars is habitable. Well, Mars is a cold planet where every day we get reports from Odyssey about frozen water.

What you need is a heat source to generate liquid water, which is thought to be the primary condition for supporting life. So the most probable way of heating is geothermal heat, and we use volcanoes as sort of a representation of that. And we're not talking now about volcanoes that are spewing lava over the surface today, but if you have a magmatic region that comes close to the

surface, it could be heated by the geothermal energy, the ice could be heated by the geothermal energy and form subsurface hydrothermal systems, which would then be zones that life could persist in.

And so we're looking for evidence of geothermal systems below the surface that might be in contact with the atmosphere through cracks in the ground. What I'd like to point out is that when you walk around the killer way of caldera in the Hawaii volcanic National Park you can smell sulfur gas that's coming from the magma zones miles beneath the surface where you're walking so if there were some magma regions close to the surface generating hydrothermal systems and gases could be seeping out into the atmosphere, and that wouldn't otherwise be in the atmosphere due to the simple photochemistry. This would then be a signature of habitability,

and depending on what we detect, there may even be a signature that these habitable zones are inhabited with life. Well, let's hope so. The camera that you mentioned, the Canadian camera, I read is built to work in conjunction with the spectrometer? That's correct. As the sun is rising and setting, it will pass through layers in the atmosphere that have dust, aerosols, clouds, that have dust, aerosols, clouds, and that will affect the measurements, the signals that we are measuring with the infrared spectrometer.

And so we'd like to know that what were the fluctuations we're seeing in the infrared spectrometer are actually due to atmospheric conditions rather than mechanical conditions or electronic conditions in the spectrometer. So we would like to image the atmosphere and make sure that we can correlate these fluctuations with variations in dust or aerosols or clouds. or the clouds. In addition, the infrared spectra that we're acquiring actually has a lot of information about the properties of dust and clouds, both composition, size, and number density. And the camera provides an extension into the visible that enhances our interpretation of these data in terms of these atmospheric phenomena. Dr. Allenwood, we're just about out of time.

You already made the comparison to the Mars Odyssey spacecraft, which your Marvel proposal shares many qualities with, the Odyssey being, of course, a very successful mission, an orbiter now circling Mars. And I guess that means it's a pretty well-tested platform. That was our hope of taking a well-defined spacecraft system along with well-defined ground operations and putting basically a new science instrument to try and maximize the amount of science we can do within the constrained budget for the Mars Scout program. We have been wishing good luck to all of your fellow Mars Scout candidate principal investigators, but I wonder if it ever feels like you are in an Academy Award race with three other outstanding nominees. Well, it's absolutely the case.

The expression that I use is, what is it called, the immortals, when, you know, in the end there will only be one. Well, we wish you luck, as I said. Certainly we hope to talk to you again, whatever the outcome of this decision will be by NASA. Look forward to talking to you when you return to JPL in Pasadena. Thank you. That was Mark Allen of JPL talking about the Marvel orbiter. Remember that we hope to bring back the leader of the winning Mars Scout team next week. Imagine how much more

we'd learn if all four could go to the Red Planet. I'll be back with Bruce Betts and special guests Biff and Sandy right after this return visit from Emily. I'm Emily Lakdawalla, back with Q&A. The light zones and dark belts in Jupiter's and Saturn's atmospheres are caused by motions of the atmosphere, while the different colors result from differences in composition and temperature from place to place.

Sulfur and red phosphorus have been suggested as the coloring agents for the bands, along with a wide variety of organic compounds created from the interaction of solar rays with ammonia, methane, and other atmospheric gases. However, no firm identification of the chemicals involved in Jupiter's and Saturn's colored atmospheres have been made. One thing that has been observed is that the band's colors are related to the altitude of the clouds. Blue is deepest, followed by browns and whites, and reds are highest. Got a question about the universe? Send it to us at planetaryradio at planetary.org. And now, here's Matt with more Planetary Radio.

Bruce Betts is back for a special edition of What's Up. We're going to get through the regular stuff here quickly because we are going to have on once again live Biff and Sandy from the Mars Exploration Rovers. So, Bruce, welcome back. What's up? Why, thank you very much. I am feeling Martian today with this show. Mars, look at it in the southeast, rising in the late evening. Brightest object up there in the sky besides the moon. Orange, red, fabulous to see for the next several weeks.

You can actually, if you have a telescope, look for Mars' south polar cap, which is pointing at us by about 19 or 20 degrees. And those of you who love Mars might love Mars science fiction and therefore might want to send a birthday wish to Ray Bradbury, one of the greatest science fiction authors of all time, author of the Martian Chronicles. Go to our website, planetary.org slash Bradbury, and you can send him a birthday wish. We'll have more about that in future weeks. This week in space history, August 10, 1990, our one departure from Mars,

Magellan enters orbit around Venus. Then August 5th, 1969, Mariner 7, the last Mars flyby from the U.S., was closest to Mars. On to Random Space Fact! A Martian year is 1.88 Earth years long. That's 687 Earth days, or for the truly random space fact, that's 669 Mars days long. Which I like, because I'd only be 20-something. Exactly. There are a lot of great reasons to love Mars. We'll keep talking about that in coming shows as well.

Trivia contest. Last week's question was Mariner 8. What planet did Mariner 8 land on? That's what he said. A bit of a trick question. Yes, you did warn people, and our listeners did their wonderful, usual wonderful job. Some of them

even thought, asked us, yeah, that's a joke, isn't it? Well, yeah, sort of. It's a joke, but it's a trivia question. Mariner 8 was the sister to Mariner 9, which orbited Mars. But Mariner 8 failed on launch and landed on Earth in the Atlantic Ocean. And here is our winner, randomly chosen from everybody who entered with a correct answer, Walt Scheel. Walt Scheel, who hails from Peaster, Texas.

Walt, you got it right. Mars 8 attempted to launch to Mars on a surface mapping mission but experienced a second stage failure after launch on May 8, 1971. And so, of course, it came down on Earth, as you pointed out. And Walt is going to be getting this week's Mars 3D poster. Congratulations.

Congratulations. And we also got this entry from Kyle Tinsley. Kyle, sorry, you weren't the one randomly chosen, but we had to read this. Mariner 8 landed on the planet Earth in the Mare Atlantis region, returned some fascinating underwater photographs of this bizarre planet. Kyle, see, folks, all you have to do is entertain us, and you're going to get mentioned even if you don't get a poster. And this coming week for a trivia contest, you actually will get a poster if you entertain

us. That's right. We're going back to a humorous trivia contest. Oh, goody, I've been waiting. I know you have. We've been talking, Matt's been talking in this show and last show to the four down-selected scout missions that were going to Mars. These are all people who had to come up with a name for a spacecraft going to Mars.

What would you name a spacecraft going to Mars? Remember, the most humorous answer wins. So there you have it. How do they submit their entry, Bruce? Go to planetary.org. Follow the links to Planetary Radio. All right, we better move on because, as I said, this is a special What's Up.

We have those live connections reestablished to the Mars Exploration Rover spacecraft. Biff Starling is traveling with the rover Spirit. Sandy Moondust is on Opportunity. Biff and Sandy, you may recall, are Lego minifigure representations. They're suited up for space, and they're

both part of the Planetary Society Astrobot Corps. Biff and Sandy, hope you're reading me. It is great to have you back on the show again. It's nice to be back. Dude! Sandy, we haven't talked to you since your successful launch into space back on July 7. How are things going up there? The spacecraft is functioning very well. We have completed the first trajectory correction maneuver, targeting the spacecraft to Mars.

But what's it like? How's the view? The view is stunning. Of course. Oh, oh, Sandy, tell them that baby cradle space thing. Oh, I don't think that's appropriate for this setting. Oh, no, I really think it is. As the surf punks would say, oh, I can do it.

So, here I go. Earth, the way totally baby cradle thing. Whoa, extreme blackness. Wait, sis, it's universal. Biff, Biff, all right, okay, I'll do it. Earth, the unique cradle from which we came, suspended in serene blackness of space, an oasis in the empty universe. Righteous dudette, that was quite nearly poetic. Sandy, that really was very nice. Speaking of poetry, Biff, we hear you've been writing some.

This seems an unexpected turn from you. And you've even formatted your poem as a haiku, Sandy's favorite poetry format. Could you do a reading for us? Sure, dude. Here goes. The Earth and Moon spin. Mars and the spacecraft spin, spin. Whoa! I am dizzy.

Well, that was functionally literate. Clever use of spin, spin to get that seventh syllable in the second line. Sandy, what's your evaluation of this poem? This poem? Technically, it does conform to the guidelines of a haiku. Sandy, can you share any of your poetry with us? Yes, I would love to. I would like to debut one of my more passionate haikus.

Here it is. Cruise ring, aeroshell, rover in tetrahedron, on our way to Mars. Dude, that leaves me almost weepy. Such emotion. You must be exhausted after such a high cue. Well, that was very technically accurate. Sadly, we're nearly out of time. Otherwise, I'd see if you two had any epic poems to share.

Thanks to both of you for being here on Planetary Radio, and best wishes for continued success out there. We look forward to having you back on the show again soon. Thanks, Matt. Hasta! Remember, you can read Biff and Sandy's communications in the Astro Bot Diaries at redrovergoestomars.org

forward slash astrobots. That's where you can learn about the missions while having a bit of fun along the way. Bruce, we've got to get out of here. Say goodnight. Alright, everybody. Look up in the night sky and think about your favorite flavor of ice cream. Thank you, and goodnight.

Bruce Betts is the Director of Projects for the Planetary Society. He joins us each week here on What's Up. Thanks so much for joining us for another Planetary Radio. See you next week.