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Assessment of NASA's Mars Architecture 2007-2016 (2006) / Chapter Skim
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4 A Balanced Mission Portfolio
Pages 33-36

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From page 33...
... SCIENTIFIC BALANCE The balance of scientific questions that the proposed architecture can and cannot address was of great interest and concern to the committee. Table 4.1 outlines the three key crosscutting scientific themes defined in the SSE decadal survey and breaks them down into slightly more focused key topics.
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From page 34...
... Additional development work has been undertaken in the context of the Pascal Mars Climate Network mission, which has been proposed as a Discovery and a Mars Scout mission.3 Finally, additional developmental activities have been undertaken in Europe in the context of a variety of concepts, including MARSNET, INTERMARSNET, and, most recently, NETLANDER.4 Although the committee has not seen detailed cost studies and is not appropriately constituted to undertake such studies itself, it is of the opinion that the cost of an adequate network mission is comparable with that of the
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From page 35...
... On the other hand, an in situ dating technology would find broad applicability to other solar system bodies besides Mars-especially those planets and satellites from which sample return missions cannot now be contemplated, e.g., Venus, Mercury, and the icy bodies of the outer solar system -- and so serious consideration should be given to the technical feasibility of developing the appropriate instrumentation. Ultimately, a Mars sample return mission will be required to obtain high-precision dating capable of unraveling the duration of aqueous activity at any single location and the associated implications for extinct or extant life.
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From page 36...
... To the extent that the specific science objectives of the proposed missions are defined, one of the three crosscutting themes for the exploration of Mars identified in the SSE decadal survey is largely neglected, as are very high priority topics related to understanding near-surface and boundary-layer atmospheric sciences, and so, in this respect, balance is sorely lacking. As has already been recommended (see above)
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Key Terms

  • mars architecture
  • mars exploration
  • sse decadal
  • proposed architecture
  • proposed missions

  • crosscutting themes
  • exploration strategy
  • decadal survey
  • sample return
  • balanced mission

  • mid rover
  • rover missions
  • lander network
  • mission portfolio
  • mars climate

  • mars sample
  • document mars
  • mars identified
  • third crosscutting
  • surface missions

  • return mission
  • climate network
  • absolute chronology
  • architecture represent
  • adding balance

  • deep interior
  • science questions
  • reasonably balanced
  • landed missions
  • landing site


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