Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Credit: NASA

After decades of robotic scouring of Mars, that remote world has transmitted a rock-solid message back to Earth. The communiqué from orbiters, stay-put landers and on-the-move rovers is this: The faraway globe is an active, dynamic and largely enigmatic place. Furthermore, a still elusive question that taunts scientists to this day is whether or not the Red Planet was, or is now, an extraterrestrial address for life?

A range of less-expensive landers, rovers and aerial vehicles are foreseen to help advance a sustainable human presence on Mars.
Credit: Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS)/Chuck Carter (Used with permission)

An increasing number of Mars technologists are blueprinting inexpensive and novel concepts to further investigate the multifaceted planet. Be it via economical landers and orbiters to souped-up autonomous aerial devices, they say it’s time to script new ways to gather more data from a variety of places on that far-flung world.

More data from a variety of places

As for a next round of research, there’s plenty of exploration to do; Mars-circuiting micro-satellites capable of making direct and global measurements of wind velocity, probes that plumb the depths of the planet’s huge Valles Marineris canyon system, craft able to dive into caves or provide close-up inspection of the Martian polar caps.

NASA’s robotic Holy Grail mega-buck mission, a Mars sample return effort to bring back to Earth Martian collectibles.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

But to accomplish such objectives, there’s need for less costly and complex Mars exploration missions, contrasted to the billions of dollars, on-the-books effort to whisk back Red Planet collectibles to Earth. To that end, Mars technologists are blueprinting low-cost and novel ways to further survey the multifaceted planet. Be it via souped-up helicopters to inexpensive landers and orbiters, they say it’s time to script new ways to gather more data from a variety of places on that distant planet.

To preview what’s ahead, go to my new story for the AIAA’s Aerospace America – “NASA rethinks its Mars strategy” – at:

https://aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/features/nasa-rethinks-its-mars-strategy/