John Bridges
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An Update from Mars NASA/JPL- Caltech/MSSS Professor John Bridges Space Research Centre Dept. of Physics & Astronomy NSC Graduate Space Industry Careers 7 th February 2016
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Transcript of John Bridges
An Update from Mars
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Professor John BridgesSpace Research CentreDept. of Physics & Astronomy
NSC Graduate Space Industry Careers7th February 2016
40 years ago – Viking 1,2 Landers & Orbiters
Viking Mosaic 19828-300m/pixel
Before Viking we didn’t know …• Accurate atmospheric
composition • Martian meteorites• Landing sites• Sedimentary rocks or basalts?• Differentiated igneous crust?• Has there ever been life?
40 years ago – Viking 1,2 Landers & Orbiters
1976, Viking 1 Chryse Planitia
1976, Viking 2 Utopia Planitia
1997, Pathfinder Ares Vallis (Chryse)
Viking 2 Landing Site - basalts?
Viking Orbiter images of fluvial channels
Hints of a warmer, wetter past…
Launch on Atlas V 541, Nov. 2011Cape Canaveral
2011 Mars Science Laboratory Launch…
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Gale Crater
x
Three Rover Generations
2012 MSL 975 kg2004 MER 174 kg
1997 Sojourner10 kg
ChemCam(Chemistry)
Mastcam(Imaging)
REMS(Weather)
DAN(Hydrogen)
SAM(Isotopes and organic analyses)
CheMin(Mineralogy)
MARDI(Descent Imaging)
APXS(Chemistry)
MAHLI(micromaging)
RAD(Radiation)
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Hottah Facies v. Atacama conglomerate – river pebble beds
Large feldspar-rich crystals in an igneous clast: feldspar-rich ancient continental crust
NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/IRAP/LPGNantes/CNRS/IAS/MSSS
Curiosity at Work: Arm deployed at John Klein – drilling
NASA/JPL-Caltech/D. Bouic
Benzene organics were detected in the Cumberland drilled sample
NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC
NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC
Bagnold Dunes Sol 1248 (today)
ExoMars 2016
• Trace Gas Orbiter and Stereo Camera
• Entry Descent Module
ExoMars launch 2018 or 2020
• Two metre drill• Solar powered• Mass spectrometerdesigned to search for signs of past life
HiRISE images of ExoMarslanding sites
Henson et al. 2016
Future Missions: Mars2020 (sample caching), ExoMars2016, 2018
• Differentiated crust – not just basalts
• Mars is a world of ancient deltas, rivers, rainfall Was there great chemical
weathering associated with clay in Mt Sharp?
• Mars was habitable then great atmospheric loss
Our View of Mars has Changed
