[X] My Assistant

[Redstone]

The Chair's report from the November meeting of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group is now online at http://mepag.jpl.nasa.gov/meeting/nov-05/index.html.

Here are some features on their draft exploration plan after MSL in 2009.

• 2011/2013 Scout and Mars Science Orbiter with telecommunications capability
• 2016 Mid-rovers or Astrobiology Field Laboratory
• 2018 Scout
• 2020 Planetary Evolution and Meteorology Network
• 2022 MSR Orbiter with Telecom
• 2024 Mobile MSR

I'm not sure how fixed this is, or how much it dovetails with NASA HQ's plans, (pretty close, I'd guess) but it gives us something to chew on until Bruce's Astronomy article comes out.

Note that the 2011 window is now shared with a new orbiter with "telecom capability" This sounds like the return of MTO, with science instruments added. Any ideas what instruments are at the top of the wish list for such an orbiter? If it launched in 2011, it could still play a big part in the MSL mission and be ready for the next rover in 2016. Remember by 2011 MRO will be six years old.

The Astrobio lab is an MSL scale rover, while the "Mid-rover" is intermediate between MER and MSL.

Mars Sample Return has been pushed out to 2022/24. This seems a pessimistic "who knows?" timeframe to me. A manned mission could be on the way by 2030, if the Vision for Space Exploration pans out. (A BIG "if", I know.) Sample return will have to be completed before humans go, I would imagine.