TO THE MOON, MARS, AND BEYOND

Many folks would like to see us back on the Moon and developing its resources.

Showing posts with label Mars Rover Curiosity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mars Rover Curiosity. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Curiosity and the Solar Storm

One of the major problems with sending humans to space on long trips will be how much radiation they may receive.  The more we can learn about this hazard the better.  The Mars Rover, Curiosity, is on its way to Mars and will be measuring what radiation might hit it.
- LRK -
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There was no danger of a collision—Mars rover vs. solar storm.  Racing forward at 2 million mph, the plasma cloud outpaced Curiosity’s rocket by a wide margin. 
Next time could be different, however.  With solar activity on the upswing (Solar Max is expected in 2012-2013) it’s only a matter of time before a CME engulfs the Mars-bound rover.
That suits some researchers just fine.  As Don Hassler of the Southwest Research Institute (SWRI) in Boulder, Colorado, explains, “We look forward to such encounters because Curiosity is equipped to study solar storms."
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As important as RAD’s cruise phase measurements are, the instrument’s primary mission doesn’t really begin until it lands on the Red Planet. 
Mars has a very thin atmosphere and no global magnetic field to protect it from space radiation.  Energetic particles reaching ground level might be dangerous to life--both future human astronauts and extant Martian microbes.  RAD will find out how much shielding human explorers need on the surface of Mars.  RAD will also help researchers estimate how far below ground a microbe might have to go to reach a radiation “safe zone.” 
Solar storms are just for starters. Stay tuned to Science@NASA for the second installment of this story:Curiosity and the Habitability Mars.
Author:Dr. Tony Phillips| Production editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA
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Footnote:1Posner notes that only the most powerful CMEs will still be accelerating particles when they are as far from sun as Curiosity will be.  For a typical CME, the main thing RAD will detect is the modulation of galactic cosmic rays passing through the CME.  Cosmic ray modulation could reveal new information about the interior structure of these storm clouds.
Curiosity Takes Off -- Science@NASA
Credits: The Mars Science Lab mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The rover was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. NASA's Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida managed the launch. NASA's Space Network provided space communication services for the launch vehicle. NASA's Deep Space Network will provide spacecraft acquisition and mission communication.
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Whatever vehicle takes humans to space, finding a way to protect them from harmful radiations is going to be a problem that needs to be solved.
- LRK -
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http://spaceradiation.usra.edu/aboutUs/

About Us

The goal of NASA's Space Radiation Program (SRP) is to enable humans to explore space without exceeding an acceptable level of risk from exposure to space radiation.
To achieve this goal, the SRP pursues a robust and active research program that encompasses biological, biomedical and radiation physics expertise to provide:
  • Recommendations for space radiation permissible exposure limits for exploration missions
  • Discovery of the mechanisms of biological effects from celestial radiation such as protons and heavy ions, including potential differences between celestial and terresterial radiation, such as X-rays or gamma-rays in producing biological effects
  • Radiobiological data, projection models, and computational tools to assess and project astronauts risk of cancer, central nervous system and degenerative diseases, and acute radiation syndromes from space radiation
  • Computational tools and models to project astronaut risk and to assess vehicle design for radiation protection
  • Assessment of updated technologies if needed, for monitoring radiation exposure, and recommendations on technologies to be used operationally
  • Uncertainty reductions to enable radiation protection design and crew constraints for lunar and Mars missions
  • Discovery of biological countermeasures for space radiation risks, and the accurate assessment of the effectiveness of physical, biological, or biological countermeasures or mitigations
The purpose of this web site is to communicate news and to promote awareness of the SRP research program and activities.  The web site is produced and managed by the Universities Space Research Association Division of Space Life Sciences.
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http://www.bnl.gov/medical/nasa/LTSF.asp
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The Human Adaptation and Countermeasures Division (HACD) is responsible for the performance of biomedical research focused on: 1) understanding the normal human response to space flight, and 2) developing, testing, and delivering countermeasures to those untoward responses that may affect crew health, safety, and/or performance during or after space flight missions. The HACD is comprised of two branches.

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http://www.bnl.gov/medical/nasa/LTSF.asp
Manned space exploration in the 21st century holds exciting prospects for the advancement of science and the expansion of the human experience. Plans include the Alpha space station, an outpost on the Moon, exploration of near asteroids, and a piloted mission to Mars. However, for space exploration to go on, human crew members must be protected against the harsh environment of space, in particular, against the hazards of ionizing radiation. The radiation environment in space consists of high energy protons and high energy heavy ions (HZE).
The principal source of HZE ions in nature is galactic cosmic rays (GCR), which consist mostly of protons, with small components of helium and heavier nuclei, electrons and positrons. Although the GCR will be attenuated and fragmented by electromagnetic and nuclear interactions in shielding material, crew members will still be exposed to significant radiation from both primary and secondary nuclei.
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -
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Tuesday, December 13, 2011

This Way to Mars: How Technologies Borrowed from Robotic Missions Could Deliver Astronauts to Deep Space

Bryan sent me a link to an article in the December Scientific American about how we might find our way to Deep Space.

[See link below - LRK -]



Whether the ideas presented will create more interest remains to be seen.





- LRK -









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The following from ScientificAmerican.com has been sent to you by Bryan K.

------------------------SUBSCRIBE NOW---------------------------- 

Stay connected to the latest trends in science and technology with SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN.
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This Way to Mars: How Technologies Borrowed from Robotic Missions Could Deliver Astronauts to Deep Space

The best concepts I have seen for a while! Keep looking up . . .

By Damon Landau and Nathan J. Strange 
By adapting ideas from robotic planetary exploration, the human space program could get astronauts to asteroids and Mars cheaply and quickly

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=this-way-to-mars

© 2011 Scientific American, a division of Nature America, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.



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Having read the article I wonder if this will just result in more plans that eventually get dropped for lack of continued interest or money.



I have been reading some of David S. F. Portree's blogs about previous plans for going to space that didn't materialize. We seem to be good at generating ideas but not so good at following through to implementation. If you check out some of links in the blog below you will see what I mean.

- LRK -










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http://beyondapollo.blogspot.com/2011/11/from-author-top-10-articles.html



Recently a correspondent asked me to identify my top 10 favorite Beyond Apollo articles. Here's the list, in case anyone else is interested. I found that I couldn't stop at 10, so I decided to list one for every 10 Beyond Apollo articles. I think that this list is a good place for a newcomer to start their exploration of Beyond Apollo, which currently amounts to more than 230 articles.






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We will be watching how the latest Mars rover mission, Curiosity, does on its way to Mars. Even while still in its shroud the mission begins with turning on the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD).  Wish them luck on its way to a Martian landing.




- LRK -






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Dec. 13, 2011
Dwayne Brown 
Headquarters, Washington 
202-358-1726 
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov 
Guy Webster 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,Calif. 
818-354-6278 
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov 

RELEASE: 11-414
NASA MARS-BOUND ROVER BEGINS RESEARCH IN SPACE

WASHINGTON -- NASA's car-sized Curiosity rover has begun monitoring space radiation during its 8-month trip from Earth to Mars. The research will aid in planning for future human missions to the Red 
Planet.
Curiosity launched on Nov. 26 from Cape Canaveral, Fla., aboard the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). The rover carries an instrument called the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) that monitors high-energy 
atomic and subatomic particles from the sun, distant supernovas and other sources. 
These particles constitute radiation that could be harmful to any microbes or astronauts in space or on Mars. The rover also will monitor radiation on the surface of Mars after its August 2012 landing. 
"RAD is serving as a proxy for an astronaut inside a spacecraft on the way to Mars,"  said Don Hassler, RAD's principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo. " The instrument is deep inside the spacecraft, the way an astronaut would be. Understanding the effects of the spacecraft on the radiation field will be valuable in designing craft for astronauts to travel to Mars."


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Information about the mission is available at: 
http://www.nasa.gov/msl 

You can follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at: 
http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity
or 
http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity





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And while reading about ways to get to Mars, just happened to see the movie Red Planet on cable TV.  Not the best but points out that things can go wrong.  Doesn't help that you used some military hardware for your robot, AMEE which complicates your crash landing.








- LRK -














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Red Planet is a 2000 Technicolor science fiction film directed by Antony Hoffman, starringVal Kilmer and Carrie-Anne Moss. It was released on November 10, 2000.








Plot



In 2056 AD, Earth is in ecologic crisis as a consequence of pollution and overpopulation. Meanwhile, automated interplanetary missions have been seeding Mars with atmosphere-producing algae for twenty years as the first stage in terraforming the planet. When the oxygen quantity produced by the algae is inexplicably reduced, the crew of Mars-1investigates, and must continue the mission of terraforming the planet for human colonization.

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The landing craft is damaged entering the Martian atmosphere, veers off course, and crash-lands far from their landing zone near the habitat. In the process, they lose track of "AMEE"(Autonomous Mapping Exploration and Evasion), a military combat robot re-purposed to serve as their "Mars surface navigator", and Chantillas suffers a ruptured spleen in the crash landing. With limited air, Chantillas is left behind to allow the others to complete the mission.

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Critical response












The film received negative reviews, with only a 14% "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 100 reviews.[2] Stephen Holden's review in the New York Times was almost entirely negative, calling the film "a leaden, skimpily plotted space-age Outward Bound adventure with vague allegorical aspirations that remain entirely unrealized."[3]

Errors

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Due to significant scientific inaccuracies, NASA refused to serve as a scientific adviser for the film, which it normally does for science fiction films. "The science was just so off the wall that eventually we felt, 'You guys go ahead and make your movie.' If there's something that's going to be so misleading to the public that we don't want to participate, then we'll say no," said Bert Ulrich, a NASA spokesperson. "The big thing is, we want to make sure we're not misleading the public completely."[5]

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Hmmmm, must watch out for those significant scientific inaccuracies.



- LRK -















MEDIA ADVISORY: M11-248

MEDIA INVITED TO SIMULATED ASTEROID CAMPOUT IN HOUSTON

HOUSTON -- For three days this week, a small part of NASA's Johnson
Space Center in Houston will simulate a human mission to an asteroid.
Reporters are invited to observe what the mission might entail.

As NASA continues plans to send humans to explore asteroids and other
destinations beyond low-Earth orbit, a number of questions are being
asked about how astronauts could live and work in space. NASA
astronaut Mike Gernhardt and geologist Brent Garry of the Planetary
Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz., will spend three days and two
nights living inside the cabin of a prototype multi-mission Space
Exploration Vehicle (SEV) answering some of those questions.

Reporters may visit the test site at 10:30 a.m. CST on Thursday, Dec.
15, during a simulated spacewalk in which a crew member will use a
microgravity simulator. To attend contact Amiko Kauderer at
amiko.kauderer-1@nasa.gov by 5 p.m. on Wednesday.
The public is invited to ask the crew questions via twitter
@Desert_RATS; for a Twitterview the crew will participate in at 11
a.m. on Friday, Dec. 16. Questions should be marked #SEV.











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-- Paul Allen Announces Revolution in Space Transportation Stratolaunch System

Entrepreneur and philanthropist Paul G. Allen announced today that he and aerospace pioneer
Burt Rutan have reunited to develop the next generation of space travel. Allen and Rutan, whose
SpaceShipOne was the first privately-funded, manned rocket ship to fly beyond earth's
atmosphere, are developing a revolutionary approach to space transportation: an air-launch
system to provide orbital access to space with greater safety, cost-effectiveness and flexibility.





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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -













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Sunday, August 01, 2010

Mars Rover 'Curiosity' Grows Up, Rolls for the First Time

Mom had her 100th birthday on 7/22/10 and about that time the Mars Mission Laboratory rover, Curiosity was getting itself together to take its first steps.
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/news/whatsnew/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=1026
- LRK -

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http://news.discovery.com/space/mars-rover-curiosity-grows-up-rolls-for-the-first-time.html
Mars Rover 'Curiosity' Grows Up, Rolls for the First Time
Analysis by Ian O'Neill
Mon Jul 26, 2010 04:43 AM ET

Last week, the next Mars rover -- set to be launched to the Red Planet in 2011 -- grew by 1 meter when NASA technicians and engineers attached the Remote Sensing Mast to the robot's roof. The mast carries three sets of cameras, allowing the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) to 'see' the Martian landscape, helping it navigate, take photographs and carry out experiments.

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The car-sized MSL, called 'Curiosity,' now stands at an impressive 2 meters tall, easily dwarfing the current Mars Exploration Rovers, Opportunity and Spirit.

Construction of the rover has advanced very quickly over the last few days, and on July 23 engineers commanded Curiosity to take its first, slow steps. Housed inside a clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and attached to computers via a thick set of umbilical-like cables, a live webcast watched the robot gingerly roll around.

Watch the video of Curiosity successfully reverse for the fist time across the clean room mats:
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It takes a lot longer to birth a rover than it does a human and a bit more expensive.  Back in 2003 there was a gleam in the eye of the scientists who would send another rover to Mars, with expectations of launching in 2009.  Sometimes your best laid plans just have to get put off while you contemplate another delivery date,  say November of 2011.  This will be okay as your previous rovers have done very well and managed to survive a lot longer than expected.
http://www.physorg.com/news199716405.html
- LRK -

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http://trs-new.jpl.nasa.gov/dspace/bitstream/2014/6576/1/03-0392.pdf
Rover Technology Development and Infusion for the 2009 Mars Science Laboratory Mission Richard Volpe and Stephen Peters

Abstract
After the 2003 Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) Mission, NASA plans to send a larger, longer life Mobile Science Laboratory (MSL) in 2009. This rover is planned to last 500 days, travel ten kilometers, and demonstrate autonomous capabilities that reduce the number of communication cycles now needed to achieve successful completion of activities on the surface.

Specifically, there are three categories of activity now being addressed by technology development efforts in The Mars Technology Program (MTP): long range traverse, instrument placement, and autonomous science data processing.  These technologies are being developed by competitively selected teams of researchers both in and out of NASA. A multi-stage technology integration and validation process brings these distributed elements into a common software environment for rover testing and validation. Based on this validation, some software elements are being identified for incorporation in MSL mission software.

MSL flight and ground software is based on the Mission Data System (MDS) architecture under development at The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Califomia Institute of Technology. MDS provides a system engineering methodology and a software architecture based on identifying the states of the system, and how these states are estimated and controlled.  The mission will include significant mission operations automation in the form of mission activity expansion, planning, scheduling, and constraint and flight rule checking within an integrated environment. The mission will also include significant autonomy for onboard anomaly detection, analysis, and response, including limited replanning.

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A nice power point presentation of expectations back in 2003.
You might like to see how that compares with where we are today.
- LRK -

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[PPT]
Mars Science Laboratory Mission Project Science Integration Group ...

File Format: Microsoft Powerpoint -
Mars Science Laboratory Mission Project Science Integration Group (PSIG) Final Report. June 6, 2003. PSIG-2. MSL Project Science Integration Group ...
mepag.jpl.nasa.gov/reports/PSIG_Final_Full_Report4.ppt

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A plain text run down on what will be on board "Curiosity" can be seen at this WikipediA link.
- LRK -

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Science_Laboratory

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), known as Curiosity,[2][3] is a NASA rover scheduled to be launched in November 2011[4] and would perform the first-ever precision landing on Mars. It is a rover that will assess whether Mars ever was, or is still today, an environment able to support microbial life. In other words, its mission is to determine the planet's habitability. It will also analyze samples scooped up from the soil and drilled powders from rocks.[5]

The MSL rover will be over five times as heavy as and carry over ten times the weight of scientific instruments as the Spirit or Opportunity rovers.[6] The United States, Canada, Germany, France, Russia and Spain will provide the instruments on board. The MSL rover will be launched by an Atlas V 541 rocket and will be expected to operate for at least 1 Martian year (668 Martian sols/686 Earth days) as it explores with greater range than any previous Mars rover.

Mars Science Laboratory is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of Mars, and is a project managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The total cost of the MSL project is about $2.3 billion USD.[7]

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If you can handle YouTube presentations this one should be of interest.
Nice picture of "Curiosity" as well and the text is worth reading.
- LRK -

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http://jalopnik.com/5474088/curiosity-nasas-epic-new-mars-rover
Curiosity: NASA's Epic New Mars Rover

Mars rovers "Spirit" and "Opportunity" were successful beyond NASA's wildest dreams. Now they're building a new, nuclear-powered Mini Cooper-sized rover to be lowered onto Mars by a hovering drop ship in 2013. Meet "Curiosity," the new Mars Science Laboratory.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqqBy7C8gyU&feature=player_embedded

If we can love cars on Earth, we sure as heck can love them when they're shot across the cosmos to land on another planet to do some pretty astounding science. Take a couple minutes to watch the above animation and it becomes abundantly clear NASA is aiming for a whole different level of robotic exploration with its next rover program.  The Mars Science Laboratory program was originally started back in 2003 with an estimated price tag of $1.62B, since then it's undergone delays while new technologies were invented to  support the ambitious plans and suffered a major setback when over 1,000 parts were manufactured from substandard titanium. The current estimated costs for the program is right around $2.4B, pocket change.

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Sixteen images on CNET with captions.
- LRK -

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http://news.cnet.com/2300-11386_3-10003324.html?tag=mncol
Mars rover Curiosity to seek answers (images)
May 21, 2010 12:16 PM PDT

NASA got a great deal of mileage out of the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which have lasted far longer than the 90 days originally expected of them when they landed in January 2004. Just this week, in fact, NASA said that Opportunity has surpassed the longevity record of 6 years, 116 days for operation on Mars, surpassing the Viking 1 lander. Spirit, meanwhile, may be done for. Bogged down in loose Martian soil, it may not have been able to position itself to get a good recharge from its solar panels.

Back on Earth, NASA is working on the next generation of Mars rover, named Curiosity, a bigger model that the space agency this week said it hopes to launch between November 25 and December 18, 2011, with a landing on Mars to occur between August 6 and August 20, 2012.

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Flash interactive for those who like to be dazzled.
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/

And for the more scientific orientation -
MSL Science Corner
http://msl-scicorner.jpl.nasa.gov/

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http://msl-scicorner.jpl.nasa.gov/news/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=16
News

MSL Science Corner Updated! - 07.09.2010

The Mars Science Laboratory mission is scheduled to launch in late 2011. The contents of the MSL Science Corner, including descriptions of the instruments, sampling hardware, and operations, have been updated to reflect changes that have occurred during the development of the hardware and planning for the 2011  opportunity. At present, the entire flight system is undergoing assembly and testing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

All Status Reports
http://msl-scicorner.jpl.nasa.gov/AllStatusReports/index.cfm

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So another year and some months to wait.

Go to school, get a PhD, join a mission and spend the rest of your career working to make it happen.
Want to move a mountain?  One stone at a time will do it, providing you have a life time to spend picking up stones.

 As I mentioned at the beginning, mom is 100 years young.  She has seen a lot of changes. If you live as long maybe you will see "Curiosity" land on Mars, or even something similar land on the Moon. I guess a rover needs to look into those holes that have been reported since humans have already been there, although they haven't done that.
 http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/news/index.php?/archives/184-Marius-Hills-Pit-Lava-Tube-Skylight.html
- LRK -


Thanks for looking up with me.
- LRK -

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
Comments accepted here - http://lunar-update.blogspot.com/
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http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2009/30oct_curiosity/
 A Mars Rover Named "Curiosity"

October 30, 2009: If you found your grandmother's diary, tattered and dust covered, up in the attic, would you read it? Of course you would. Granny was a pistol! Brush off the dust, open up the little book, and foray into her lively and interesting past.

Dust cloaks some fascinating tales in other places, too. NASA scientists will soon brush the dust off some Martian rocks that are practically bursting their seams to give their lively account of the red planet's past. The Mars Science Lab -- aptly named "Curiosity" --  is heading up there in 2011 to read the diary of Mars.

The small, car-sized rover will ramble about on the rocky surface, gizmos at full tilt, not only brushing dust off rocks but also vaporizing them with a laser beam, gathering samples to analyze on the spot, taking high resolution photographs, and more.

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http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=880
Too Many Mars Missions Planned?

Have humans got too many Mars missions on the drawing board? Take a look at this hilarious video, and think it over.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjiGH9QNiU0&feature=player_embedded
Mars 2020 Springtime

Here is a quick list of what's actually going on now:  [this looks to be 2006 time frame - LRK -]

   * 1996 November 7, Delta II, currently operating in Mars orbit.
Mars Global Surveyor (Nasa).
   * 2001 April 7, Delta II, currently operating in Mars orbit. 2001
Mars Odyssey, Mars Surveyor 2001 Orbiter (Nasa).
   * 2003 June 2, Soyuz-Fregat, currently operating in Mars orbit.
Mars Express (ESA), Orbiter Mars Express and a Lander named Beagle 2.
   * 2003 June 10, Delta 2 (7425), currently operating on the surface
of Mars. Spirit, 2003 Mars Exploration Rover 2, MER-2, MER-A, Mars
Surveyor 2003 Lander/Rover A (Nasa).
   * 2003 July 7, Delta 2 (7425), currently operating on the surface
of Mars. Opportunity, 2003 Mars Exploration Rover 1, MER-1, MER-B,
Mars Surveyor 2003 Lander/Rover B (Nasa).
   * March 2, 2004, Ariane V, currently in interplanetary cruise.
Rosetta (ESA). Was scheduled for launch in January 2003, as
Mars/asteroid/comet mission, will flyby Mars for gravity assist on
August 26, 2005, to finally reach and land on Comet 46 P/Wirtanen in
2011.
   * Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Surveyor 2005 Orbiter (Nasa).
Arrived at Mars on March 10, 2006, inserted into highly-excentric
orbit; now in aerobraking phase scheduled until November 2006.

For future Martian springtimes:

   * 2007 August. Phoenix - the selected Mars 2007 Small Scout Missions (Nasa): An in-situ volatile and organic molecule survey (LPL/Univ of Arizona).
   * 2009 December Mars Science Laboratory, Mars Smart Lander, Mars 2009 Mobile Scientific Laboratory (Nasa).: Formerly scheduled for 2007, the spacecraft is now to be launched in December 2007, and to arrive at Mars in October 2010.
   * 2009 Late Phobos-Grunt (Russia). Scheduled sample return mission to Martian moon Phobos.
   * 2009 Late Beagle 2: Evolution (ESA). Mars Lander.
   * 2011 Mars Scout 2 (Nasa). A mission succeeding and extending the 2007 Mars Scout, Phoenix; details to be defined. Mars Beyond 2009 page (JPL); Mars 2003 and 2005 page (NSSDC)
   * 2011 Exo Mars (ESA). Will include an orbiter and a descent module that will land a highly mobile rover, weighing up to 200 kilograms, on the surface of Mars.
   * 2014 Mars 2014 (Nasa; possible participations from France and Italy) Possibly first sample return mission. Mars Beyond 2009 page (JPL); Mars 2003 and 2005 page (NSSDC)
   * 2016 Mars 2016 (Nasa, international?; under study). Possibly another sample return mission, or orbiters, landers, rovers. May include a Mars Astrobiology Field Laboratory, or Deep Drilling or other technologies. Mars Beyond 2009 page (JPL); Mars 2003 and 2005 page (NSSDC)

Read more details on this Mars landing list. Also, it's not like everyone has to go to the same place: see this list of 153 Mars landing sites.
http://spider.seds.org/mars/mars-l.html
http://cmex.ihmc.us/MarsTools/Mars_Cat/Part_3/sit.html

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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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