Mars Ariel Platform Mission (MAP)

The Mars Aerial Platform (MAP) mission is a low-cost, Discovery class mission whose purpose is to generate tens of thousands of very high resolution (20 cm/pixel) pictures of the Martian surface, map the global circulation of the Martian atmosphere, and examine the surface and sub-surface with ground penetrating radar, infrared spectroscopy, neutron spectroscopy, and other remote sensing techniques. The data is acquired by instruments which are carried by balloons flying at a nominal altitude of about 7 km over the Martian surface. Because new balloon and micro-spacecraft technology is now available, the balloon probes could be quite long-lived, lasting hundreds or even thousands of days.

The MAP mission is carried out as follows: A low-cost launch vehicle is used to propel a small spacecraft carrying 8 entry capsules onto trans-Mars injection. Approaching Mars, a spinner is used 10 days prior to arrival to release the capsules outward so that they enter Mars' atmosphere at widely dispersed locations. Each capsule then enters the atmosphere, and deploys a parachute which slows it down to the point where a balloon can be inflated. The inflation is accomplished during descent, so that no landing system is required. After the balloon is inflated, the parachute, capsule, and inflation equipment is jettisoned, and used to land a meteorology package consisting of pressure and temperature sensors, battery and transmitter on the surface. Each of the balloon probes will then commence their float around Mars at an altitude of about 7 km (23,000 ft) above the mean surface level. The probes, which will never land in the course of their long duration aerial cruise, will carry a payload of 8 kg, which includes 2 cameras, 1 kg of atmospheric science and additional instruments, data recording and transmitting equipment, a rechargeable battery and solar array.

When it is daylight two pictures are taken simultaneously every 15 minutes. One is taken with a high resolution CCD black and white camera with a nominal resolution of 20 cm per pixel. The other is taken with a color camera at a moderate resolution of 10 m per pixel. The two cameras are aligned so that the high resolution image is located at the center of the medium resolution picture, whose features in turn can be used to locate the region studied on a map of the planet. The data is stored and then is periodically uplinked to an orbiting satellite, which is Mars Observer, and is then transmitted back to Earth.

Tracking of the balloons would give information on winds and circulation systems which could be used to test the computational global circulation models currently being developed by NASA. . MAP balloons could measure these properties directly and thereby greatly increase our understanding of these climatically significant particles. Water vapor concentrations could be measured, furthering our understanding of the nature and distribution of near surface water reservoirs.

The MAP mission will produce a glorious science return for Mars geology and meteorology, and provide engineers with the knowledge of the surface of Mars needed for the design of rovers and safe landers. It will provide future explorers with information about where precious water may be found, and may identify locations that offer improved prospects for a search for indigenous life. By charting the planet's winds, MAP will provide the routes for future mobile science missions - for the skies of Mars are its highways.

But perhaps the greatest return from the MAP mission will be the least tangible - its impact on the intellectual life of humanity at large. Today, most people still think of Earth as being the only world in the universe, and the other planets, despite academic knowledge to the contrary, as mere points of light in the sky. The MAP aerostats will take humanity's eyes to another planet in a way that has never been done before. Through the cameras, we will see Mars in its spectacular vastness - its enormous canyons, its towering mountains, its craters, its plateaus, it’s dried up lakes and rivers, its rocky plains and frozen fields of water and dry ice. We will see that Mars is truly a world, and for the first time, our knowledge that the Earth is not unique shall really be made tangible.