Researchers compete for NASA Mars mission

Two faculty and staff projects from the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences (AOSS) recently have been selected to compete for a NASA orbiting space mission to study Mars.

The mission, scheduled in 2011, will study Mars' atmosphere, climate and potential habitability in greater detail than ever before. The winning proposal, which is expected to be selected by the end of this year, could cost the space agency up to $475 million.

The selected proposals are:

• Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN mission (MAVEN): MAVEN would provide first-of-its-kind measurements and address key questions about Mars' climate and habitability, and improve understanding of dynamic processes in the upper Martian atmosphere and ionosphere. Thomas Zurbuchen, associate professor, will build the pickup ion composition spectrometer (PICS) and Michael Liemohn, associate professor, will provide science support.

• The Great Escape (TGE) mission: TGE directly would determine the basic processes in Martian atmospheric evolution by measuring the structure and dynamics of the upper atmosphere. In addition, potentially biogenic atmospheric constituents, such as methane, would be measured. Stephen Bougher, research professor, will be the mission's chief scientist and Andrew Nagy, professor, will provide science support. Brian Gilchrist, EECS and AOSS professor, will build an instrument for TGE.

These selections were judged to have the best science value among 26 proposals submitted to NASA last year. Each Mars mission proposal receives initial funding of approximately $2 million to conduct a nine-month implementation feasibility study. Following that, NASA will select one of the two proposals for full development as a Mars scout mission.

"We're excited that U-M is a partner on both proposals," says Tamas Gombosi, AOSS department chair. "It's nice to know that U-M will be heading to Mars again. It is a win-win situation for AOSS and its Space Physics Research Laboratory. Our big challenge is to keep the work on the two competing proposals completely separated and the competition fair."

The Mars Exploration Program seeks to characterize and understand Mars as a dynamic system, including its present and past environment, climate cycles, geology and biological potential.

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