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[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

Magma and Water on Mars

--- Martian meteorites tell us part of the fascinating story about when volcanoes erupted and water flowed.

Written by G. Jeffrey Taylor
Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology
posted December 27, 2005

[dvandorn]

I can think of a mission design that would allow in-situ analysis of Martian rocks and soils.

Land one (or more) big, heavy laboratories. Sell them to Congress as unmanned engineering tests of landing systems for later manned spacecraft. Equip these heavy landers with the types of equipment needed for isotopic analysis and dating analysis, and develop automated sample handling/preparation systems.

Then land a fleet of smaller rovers, all of which have some basic analysis abilities but which are primarily sample-collectors. Land them within roving range of the big, heavy lab.

Then start a multiple-rover trek "home," towards the lab, investigating all of the rocks and soils along the way. As each rover arrives at the lab, it delivers its samples, which are then analyzed and results transmitted back to the PIs here on Earth.

If your rovers are still in good shape, send them out again along different paths, or check out pre-identified sampling targets that your initial survey missed.

If you can land your lab and rovers precisely, you can get a great radial sampling pattern around your lab, out to 50 to 100 km from a central location. The lab is also big and heavy enough that it could deply a seismometer and a heat-flow probe at the base location.

Land six to eight of these lab/rover missions across the Martian globe, and you'll have a pretty good idea what's been happening up there, I think...

-the other Doug