Robots Will Go To Mars

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

October 26, 2000 / 5:42 PM EDT / CBS

NASA plans six major robotic missions to Mars in the next 15 years, the U.S. space agency's top science experts said Thursday, but they refused to speculate when humans might go to the Red Planet.

As CBS News Correspondent Terisa Estacio reports, the new plan for exploring Earth's nearest planetary neighbor is aggressive, but puts off until at least 2011 a mission to collect samples from the Martian surface and return them to Earth. Astronomers had hoped to get Mars soil samples by 2010.

NASA scientists say they have learned a lot from recent disappointments, like the one almost a year ago when the Mars Polar Lander was lost.

"We have to be very sure of what we are doing and take care of the billions it costs to check out Mars," said Edward Weiler, head of NASA's office of space science.

At a cost of perhaps $400 million to $450 million a year for the next five years, the Mars plan would feature a combination of orbiting spacecraft and spaceships that would land on the planet, along with long-distance rovers, according to Weiler.

Without mentioning the loss last year of two robotic spacecraft bound for Mars — the Mars Polar Lander and the Mars Climate Orbiter — Weiler told reporters, "We have to assume that Mars will continue to surprise us."

The strategic aim for Mars exploration remains the same as it was before the much-criticized 1999 NASA failures: to follow the water in search of traces of possible life on the planet.

A sample return mission is seen as a key piece of the puzzle of Martian water. Weiler recognized this, but noted the need for careful planning for this expedition.

"Ultimately we want to go to Mars and get a sample and bring it back to Earth," Weiler said. "But we have to be very, very sure that that billion-dollar mission to go get a sample is going to the right place on Mars."

The launch schedule for the next several years begins with a 2001 Mars orbiter, the 2003 launch of a pair of rovers that will move along the surface and the launch in 2005 of a scientific orbiter that will build on work done by the currently orbiting Mars Global Surveyor.

The Surveyor turned up tantalizing signs of liquid water, and the so-called Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter would aim to analyze the surface more closely, taking images with a resolution of perhaps 8 inches or so, said Weiler and other NASA scientists.

After that, around the year 2007, the rate of exploration would intensify, with the possible dispatch of a "smart lander" to the Martian surface that would be able to carry up to 600 pounds of scientific instruments.

A "smart lander" craft would be able to sense whether it was within several miles of its target landing site, instead of hundreds of miles away, said Firouz Naderi, the Mrs program manager based at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

In the seconds before landing, the lander would be able to steer away from hazards to set down safely, Naderi said.

Other technology envisioned for these scientific missions includes rovers able to range 100 miles or more from the landing site, instead of the few yards covered by the 1997 Mars Pathfinder rover, which beamed close-up pictures of Mars back to Earth.

In 2007 and beyond, NASA officials said there would be a series of small-scale "Scout" missions, which could include small drone aircraft to fly over Mars at close range, or even balloons to drift over the Martian surface.

New techniques to put robotic spacecraft into proper orbits would also be implemented, Naderi said.

International participation, especially with France and Italy, was expected to enhance the program, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials said.

Many of these technologies could be used if and when humans go to Mars, but none of the NASA scientists would venture a guess as to when that might occur, given the essential uncertainties of the project.

Speaking of the early missions in the new program, Weiler said: "I have a feeling those missions may uncover something that we brilliant humans haven't thought of yet."