Mars Science Laboratory

This artist concept features NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover, a mobile robot for investigating Mars' past or present ability to sustain microbial life. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mars Science Laboratory and Curiosity Rover

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is the next major mission in NASA’s long line of Mars explorers. MSL is larger than any previous Mars surface mission, and will deliver the next generation of complex lab instruments to Mars. The mission is of immense importance to NASA’s astrobiological objectives at Mars, and will help scientist determine whether or not past or present life could have gained a foothold on Mars. The Mars Science Laboratory, along with its Curiosity rover, is truly NASA’s first astrobiology mission since the Viking landers of the 1970s.

MSL’s suite of instruments includes tools that are of direct relevance to the goals of the Astrobiology Program, and many that received funding from Astrobiology elements at NASA. Components of these instruments have also been tested in Mars-analog environments on Earth, joining astrobiologists on field expeditions to extreme environments like Arctic islands, isolated deserts and barren Antarctic valleys. The ten instrument packages were designed with the objective to explore and quantitatively assess potential habitats for life on Mars, both past or present.

An artist's concept of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (left) serves to compare it with Spirit, one of NASA's twin Mars Exploration Rovers. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Curiosity’s Instrument Package

• SAM (Gas Chromatograph/Mass Spectrometer) will be able to measure mineralogy, organics and isotopes in rocks, soil and the atmosphere of Mars. SAM will search for a range of compounds of carbon, such as methane, that could be associated with life.

• The CheMin (Chemistry and Mineralogy) instrument will study minerals in rocks and soil. Minerals are shaped by the conditions in which they form, and studying the minerals in samples can thereby provide evidence of past martian environments.

• The Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument will vaporize dust from the surface and analyze underlying rock. ChemCam can even analyze samples from a distance.

• The Mast Camera (MastCam) will take color images and video of the martian surface, providing astrobiologists with a ground-level view of the research site in Gale Crater. This will allow scientists to guide the rover and identify features of interest that provide information about past environmental conditions, and sites that can be examined up close with other instruments.

• The Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) will provide close-up views of minerals, textures, and structures in rocks, debris, and dust. This will help astrobiologists identify geomorphological evidence of liquid water.

• MARDI (Mars Descent Imager) will take video during MSL’s descent. This ‘astronaut’ view of the terrain will help scientists identify science targets and guide the rover.

• RAD (Radiation Assessment Detector) will measure radiation at the surface. This data is useful in determining the current habitability of the martian surface and challenges that could face future human explorers. Radiation will also be a major obstacle for organisms that are used to aid long-duration human missions, such as crops that might be grown for food on Mars.

• The APSX (Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer) instrument will measure chemical elements in rocks and soils. APSX data will help identify environments that were once exposed to liquid water. APSX was funded through international partnership with the Canadian Space Agency.

• REMS (Rover Environmental Monitoring Station) is a weather station that will provide data concerning the environment of modern-day Gale Crater. This information will help astrobiologists determine the potential for life on present-day Mars and the conditions that could confront future missions. REMS was funded through international partnership with the Spanish government and the Centro de Astrobiologica in Spain.

• The DAN (Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons) instrument is able to detect water content in ice and minerals. DAN is also able to search for layers of water and ice up to 2 meters below the surface. Studying the water content of present day Mars can help astrobiologists determine how much water could have been present at the surface on ancient Mars, and where these reservoirs of water have disappeared to today. By searching for water and ice beneath the surface, DAN will also help astrobiologists identify potential environments for extant life on present-day Mars. DAN was funded through international partnership with the Russian Space Agency.

The Mars Science Laboratory mission's rover, Curiosity, in the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on May 26, 2011. The rover was shipped from JPL in Pasadena, California, to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 22, 2011. Image Cr edit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Analytic and in-situ measurements from MSL will also provide essential ground truth to anchor regional and global remote sensing mineralogy data from Mars. Orbital missions at Mars have provided a great deal of information concerning the mineralogy and geology of Mars – hinting at regions where liquid water may have once flowed at the surface. MSL will help examine evidence of past water at the ground level, and will characterize the nature of current and ancient martian environments. MSL will help astrobiologists validate hypotheses of early martian environmental evolution and climate history. This will allow us to determine regions on Mars that could contain the best preserved environmental signals, or even biosignatures.

Like all missions to Mars, MSL will also test new technologies that will aid in future missions. For instance, MSL has a unique and complex landing architecture that will help improve accuracy of targeted landing and will allow high-mass missions to touch down on the surface of Mars.

The environment of Mars has changed throughout the planet’s history, and astrobiologists believe that Mars may have been habitable for life as we know it in the past. Even if life does not exist on Mars today, the rocks, soils and subsurface of Mars may preserve records of these ancient, habitable environments. One of the prime goals of MSL is to hunt for environmental signals and possible biosignatures that will help astrobiologists determine if Mars was once habitable for life.

This artist's concept depicts the moment that NASA's Curiosity rover touches down onto the Martian surface. The entry, descent and landing of MSL will be one of the most complicated landings NASA has ever performed on another planet. Instead of the familiar airbag landing systems of the past Mars missions, Mars Science Laboratory will use a guided entry and a sky crane touchdown system to land the hyper-capable, massive rover. Guided entry of MSL will allow for a more precise landing than previous Mars missions, placing the rover within a 12-mile (20-km) landing ellipse. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Astrobiology and Mars

Mars has been a focus of astrobiology research since the early days of space research. In fact, Mars has been considered a likely habitat for life since ancient scholars first gazed at the heavens.

Today, Mars is a cold desert world that is roughly half the diameter of Earth. With no oceans or liquid water at the surface, Mars has about the same amount of dry land as Earth. As a small, rocky planet, many comparisons can be drawn between the Earth and Mars. Mars has seasons, polar ice caps, volcanoes, canyons, clouds and weather… but the planet’s atmosphere is extremely thin. Because its so cold and the atmospheric pressure is so low, liquid water cannot exist for long on the surface. In the past, conditions on Mars may have been more suitable for liquid water. In fact, surface feature that indicate possible floods, bodies of water and even oceans in Mars’ past have been identified from orbit. If liquid water was once present on Mars, then environments that were habitable for life as we know it may have also persisted.

Astrobiology’s investment in Mars exploration is geared toward identifying, categorizing and understanding locations on Mars that may have once supported habitable environments. This includes developing tools and techniques for identifying mineralogical and physical signs of liquid water, biosignatures and chemical evidence of ancient habitats.

Questions surrounding the potential for current life on Mars also still remain. Evidence of methane in Mars’ atmosphere, possible outflows of recent water and data that hints at subsurface water reservoirs have peaked scientific curiosity in recent years. If any liquid water exists on Mars, particularly below the surface where it might be more stable, then habitats for life could theoretically exist today.

Because Mars bears some similarities to Earth, it is also an important target for validating models of potentially habitable, extrasolar planets. Data from Venus, Earth, and Mars is helping astrobiologists determine how to identify habitable worlds throughout the Universe based on the observations we can make using modern telescopes. Atmospheric models of the inner planets of our solar system can be used to understand the range of planetary conditions that can be determined from low resolution, full-disk spectra of distant worlds at visible, near-IR, and thermal wavelengths.

The potential for past or present life on Mars is a major driver of research with the NASA Astrobiology Program. Many of the studies we perform in extreme environments on Earth are geared toward understanding how life can survive in harsh environment akin to those that may have existed on Mars. Even if Mars has no life today, the planet will remain a primary focus of space exploration at NASA.

MSL is NASA’s next major astrobiology mission, and the data it provides will help shape the future of the Astrobiology Program. By examining evidence of hydrated minerals and morphology of materials that have interacted with liquid water, MSL will quantitatively assess the habitability through time of the landing site in Gale Crater. The mission is a critical step towards determining if Mars once supported life.

Objective 2.1 of the Astrobiology Roadmap: Mars exploration.
Through orbital and surface missions, explore for potentially habitable environments and evidence of life, as indicated by water, organic matter, atmospheric gases, and/or minerals. Study martian meteorites to guide Mars exploration. To support both exploration at Mars and the first sample return mission, up- date astrobiology measurement requirements, support site selection studies, and develop/improve relevant technologies and analytical methods.

At the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, and the spacecraft's descent stage have been enclosed inside the spacecraft's aeroshell. This image was taken Oct. 1, 2011, and shows the aeroshell with its heat shield on top. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech