CU scientists to lead science team for NASA's 2003 Mars mission

This computer-generated image depicts a NASA Mars rover, with a Cornell scientific payload. Two rovers will be launched in 2003. The image is a still from a video created for NASA by Cornell undergraduate Dan Maas. NASA

By David Brand

Cornell has been selected by NASA to provide the scientific instruments and lead the science team for the next mission to the surface of Mars. And last week the space agency announced that when the mission is launched in 2003, it will involve two rover exploration vehicles, each with its own science cargo.

Steven Squyres, the Cornell professor of astronomy who will be the principal investigator on the mission's Athena science package, told an Aug. 10 NASA press conference in Washington, D.C., "This mission will be humanity's first great voyage of exploration this new millennium."

The two rovers will be launched separately from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida by Delta 2 rockets, with the first scheduled for May 22, 2003, and the second June 4 of that year. Following a trip lasting 7 1/2 months, the robot vehicles will reach Mars 18 days apart.

Although Cornell is providing the science package for the first rover, it is not certain that it also will be building the science tools for the second. Edward Weiler, head of NASA's office of space science, made it clear that the science instruments on the second rover will be open to competitive bidding. Weiler noted that "celestial mechanics," an unusual alignment of Earth and Mars in 2003, made a second launching an attractive and economical option, adding about $200 million to the overall cost.

Cornell's Steven Squyres, left, professor of astronomy and principal investigator on the two rovers' science cargo, and James Bell, assistant professor of astronomy, who will have responsibility for the rovers' panoramic camera system. Frank DiMeo/University Photography

Included on Squyres' large international science team is James Bell, Cornell assistant professor of astronomy, who will have responsibility for the rovers' Pancam panoramic camera system. Pancam will reveal the terrain around the rovers and will be used by the science team to select the most promising rocks and soil targets for intensive study.

Each of the two rovers' science packages will consist of six scientific instruments, which Squyres says will allow them to act as "robotic field geologists." The instruments, besides the Pancam, are a device called Mini-TES, to view the scene around the rover in the infrared; a microscopic camera; a Mössbauer spectrometer to identify iron-bearing minerals; and an instrument called the alpha-proton-X-ray spectrometer, an improved version of the instrument used by Pathfinder's Sojourner rover that will measure concentrations of most major elements. The packages also include a rock abrasion tool, or RAT, to expose fresh rock surfaces for study.

The two spacecraft carrying the rovers will use the same concept for landing on the Martian surface as employed by the Pathfinder spacecraft in its 1997 mission: A parachute will slow the spacecraft down, and airbags will inflate to cushion the landing.

The new rovers, however, will be considerably larger than the Pathfinder's Sojourner rover. Squyres told last week's NASA press conference that each rover each will weigh about 300 pounds and travel on six wheels powered by solar-charged electrical power. Each will communicate with the Earth using a pop-up dish antenna.

"You'll be able to see what we see. You'll see a rover's-eye view of Mars," Squyres said.