[X] My Assistant

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

Another COSPAR abstract ( http://www.cosis.net/abstracts/COSPAR2006/...006-A-02223.pdf ) on this subject. Note particularly the last paragraph, in which the Japanese are clearly expressing their desire to build some of the experiments for NASA's planned 2013 Mars Science and Telecom Orbiter:

"Moreover, some consider a future back-up mission after Japanese Mars mission NOZOMI. Although NOZOMI produced interplanetary observation data, the insertion to circummartian orbits was finally given up in 2003. Future landing missions will require an orbiter for efficient data transfer. If 20kg payload would be allowed in the data communication orbiter, important measurements of the plasma environment around Mars can be executed with a scientific target to clarify the atmospheric escape."

The pre-project scientist for MSTO is a specialist in exactly this area: http://nesc.nasa.gov/bio/bio_winterhalter.cfm?linkfrom=team . I haven't been able to squeeze a word out of the Internet about what MEPAG's upcoming recommendations for MSTO's science payload will be -- but it was made clear at the November COMPLEX meeting, where MSTO's existence was first unveiled, that it will almost certainly be focused on Mars' atmosphere. There are several very good reasons for this:

(1) It has been made clear at all recent meetings on the design of the Mars program that we very badly need more detailed observations of the behavior over time of the Martian atmosphere in order to design reliable systems for future Mars landers (including those landers of unprecedented size) -- especially including detailed monitoring of the wild fluctuations in the density of Mars' upper atmosphere.

(2) MEPAG has just stated that two major goals of US scientific exploration of Mars which are separate from the central search-for-life line -- and which must no longer be unfairly neglected -- are a Mars surface network mission, and study of the gas escape mechanisms operating in Mars' upper atmosphere.

(3) The search for and mapping of trace gases, as we all know, has now become a very important new element in the search for Martian life.

[Matt Francis]

I thought that the MTO was cancelled...