Cat#9Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (2005): This mission is being developed to provide detailed
information about thousands of sites on Mars, connecting the big-picture perspective of an orbiter
with a level of local detail that has previously come only from landing a spacecraft on the surface.
The spacecraft's telescopic camera will reveal martian landscapes in resolution fine enough to
show rocks the size of a desk. Maps of surface minerals will be produced in unprecedented detail
for thousands of potential future landing sites. Scientists will search in particular for types of minerals
that form in wet environments. A radar instrument on the orbiter will probe hundreds of meters
(or yards) below Mars' surface for layers of frozen or melted water, and other types of geologic layers.
Another instrument will document atmospheric processes changing with Mars' seasons, and
study how water vapor enters, moves within and leaves the atmosphere.
Phoenix Mars Scout (2007): This mission will send a spacecraft to land in an ice-rich region of
northern Mars, scoop up soil to analyze at the landing site, and radio home evidence about the history
of martian water and the possibility of past or current life. NASA chose Phoenix in August
2003 to be the first flight in the Mars Scout program of competitively selected missions. Phoenix
will land in May 2008 on arctic ground where Mars Odyssey has found abundant ice near the surface.
A stereo color camera and a weather station will study the surrounding environment while
other instruments check excavated soil samples for water, organic chemicals and conditions that
could indicate whether the site was ever hospitable to life. Microscopes will reveal features as
small as 1/1,000th the width of a human hair. The mission will use many components of a spacecraft
originally built for a 2001 Mars lander mission, which was kept in storage after that mission
was cancelled. NASA plans to select a second Mars Scout from a future round of proposals to fly
in 2011.
Mars Science Laboratory (2009): Following the high-resolution study of the planet by the Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter in search for the highest-priority sites on Mars, the program calls for a
precision lander to one of those sites in search for habitable environments and the basic building
blocks of life. Baselined as being nuclear-powered, the mission will also take advantage of
advances in entry, descent and landing technologies to enable it to access about three-fourths of
Mars. It will have the capability to move on the surface for a full martian year or longer, and across
distances an order of magnitude larger than the Mars Exploration Rovers.
Mars Telecommunications Orbiter (2009): This mission will be the first interplanetary spacecraft
whose primary mission is to provide communications services to other missions. It will fly in a
higher orbit than any previous Mars orbiter missions. It will dramatically increase the amount of
data that surface missions such as the Mars Science Laboratory can send to Earth. It will operate
in two radio bands and carry an optical communications terminal to demonstrate use of a laser
beam for interplanetary communications.