• Mars Surveyor 2001 Orbiter
• Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander
• MUSES-C - Asteroid 4660 Nereus lander and sample return NASA/Japan
• CONTOUR (Comet Nucleus Tour ) Multiple Comet Flyby Mision
• Europa Orbiter - Europa orbiter imaging and radar mission.
• SELENE Lunar orbiter and lander mission (ISAS-Japan)
• Rosetta (Comet P/Wirtanen orbiter/rover mission) (ESA)
• Mars Surveyor 2003 - orbiter/lander/rover mission to Mars
• Mars Surveyor 2003 lander/rover
• Deep Space 4/Champollion (Comet Tempel 1 orbiter/lander)
• Mars Surveyor 2005 - orbiter/lander/rover/sample return

by Jim Warnock

The Mars 2001 Lander has taken the brunt of the budget ax. Costs were projected at $400 million, substanially over the initial budget of $267 million. Mission scientists were unable to complete planning for the ambitious next generation rover in time and on budget. Consequently the rover is being rescheduled for the Mars 2003 Lander. This makes site selection critical for the 2001 Lander, since it will have no mobility. One suggestion is Valles Marineris, a huge Martian canyon, which could give geologic information from the layers in its 5 km. high walls.
by Jim Warnock

NASA AND JAPAN ASTEROID SAMPLE RETURN MISSION

MUSES-C will be launched on a Japanese M-5 launch vehicle in January 2002 from Kagoshima Space Center, Japan and touchdown on the asteroid Nereus in September 2003. A NASA-provided miniature robotic rover will conduct in- situ measurements on the rocky surface and collect samples.

The asteroid samples will be returned to Earth by MUSES-C via a parachute-borne recovery capsule in January 2006.

Reference: NASA press release 97-95

The CONTOUR (comet nucleus tour) multiple comet mission will attempt close fly-bys of the three comets listed at left. It is also anticipated that a fourth fly-by of an as yet undiscovered comet (2006 - 2008 timeframe) will be possible.

Science goals include high resolution mapping (4 meters) and detailed analysis of gas and dust near the nucleus.

The Europa Orbiter is a JPL mission to orbit Europa. Mission objectives are foccused on the possibility of a liquid ocean under the ice crust that covers the moon. Calculations suggest that enough gravitational tidal flexing occurs to generate the heat neccesary to prevent solid freezing. This preliminary orbiter would use a radar souder to penetrate the ice and reveal the ice-water boundary if it exists. Future plans include hydrobots that could melt their way through the ice and analyze the seas beneath. If this ocean exists, it would certainly be an interesting place, and recent Earth discoveries of the complex biology of "black smokers" deep in our oceans have certainly demonstrated that life is possible without photosynthesis.

Rosetta is a European Space Agency (ESA) mission designed to rendezvous with comet Wirtanen and perform remote sensing investigations as well as carrying a probe to land on the comet's surface and perform in situ measurements. Flybys of two asteroids on the way to the comet, with gravity assists from Mars and Earth, are also planned.

The mission is named for the Rosetta Stone which was the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics. (The stone was named for the seaside town of Rosetta, Egypt, where it was found by Napoleon's troops in 1799.)

The Mars Surveyor 2003 lander/rover mission will realize the savings from postponing the Mars 2001 rover for two years. It will carry the new and improved long-range, long duration sample collection rover now under developement at J.P.L.

The Deep Space 4/Champollion mission is designed to test advanced technologies for landing on small bodies in the solar system, and for collecting samples of those bodies and returning them to Earth.

DS4/Champollion will rendezvous with periodic Comet Tempel 1 in late 2005. After several months spent studying the cometary nucleus from orbit, will deploy a 100 kg spacecraft that will make the first ever landing on the surface of a comet. The lander will take close-up images of the surface and drill one meter into the nucleus to collect samples of cometary ices and dust. These samples will be examined by instruments onboard the DS4/Champollion lander and the results radioed back to Earth. Up to 100 cubic centimeters of material will be collected and returned to Earth in 2010.

The DS4/Champollion is named after Jean Francois Champollion, a French Egyptologist who, collaborating with Thomas Young, deciphered the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic and demotic text on the stone by comparing it with the known Greek text on the same stone.

Mars Surveyor 2005 lander/sample return mission is planned to touch down near the Rover/Sample Collection sites of previous years. It is envisaged that stored samples will be collected by the 2005 spacecraft and returned to Earth for study. This mission is in preliminary stages and many issues are still to be resolved, including quarentine of samples.