The Great Escape (TGE), The First Mars Aeronomy Mission

Paper number

IAC-08.A3.3.A2

Author

Mr. William Kosmann, Orbital Sciences Corporation, United States

Year

2008

Abstract

The Great Escape (TGE), will be the first Mars Aeronomy mission, dedicated to determining why and how Mars lost its atmosphere.  TGE was proposed to NASA as part of the Mars Scout 2006 Announcement of Opportunity.  TGE was selected, along with one other Mars Aeronomy mission proposal, for a Phase A detailed concept study.  NASA is to make its decision as to which mission is selected for Phase B detailed design, at the end of its current fiscal year, which is about the time of the opening of the 2008 IAC.  As there is at present an open competition ongoing between the Mars Scout 2006 AO finalists, TGE mission details in this abstract are necessarily vague.  The proposed paper will not be vague, and will cover all relevant details in full.

TGE will be launched by an Atlas V 401 in 2013 December, arriving at Mars in 2014 September.  After a successful Mars Orbit Insertion maneuver, TGE begins the characterization of the current atmospheric escape mechanisms, and measurement of the current escape rates.  This portion of the mission will last just under one Mars year.  The upper atmosphere of Mars will be sampled at almost all latitudes, longitudes, and times of day, allowing for the study and characterization of both time varying and location varying escape mechanisms and rates.  The final phase of TGE’s mission is the simultaneous further study of the properties of the upper Martian atmosphere, and both command relay from Earth to existing Mars spacecraft and data relay from existing Mars spacecraft back to Earth.

The paper will discuss the TGE preliminary mission design, an overall mission timeline, the science instrument set including a French/Belgian instrument collaboration, the spacecraft design, and the mission operations design.  The entire paper will consist of technical and programmatic content, primarily technical.  The TGE mission concept is new, as no spacecraft has ever been dedicated to the study of the upper atmosphere of Mars (Aeronomy).  This will be the first paper presented on the TGE mission concept in a public forum.  The contents of this paper have not been presented at any previous meeting.  Financing for the attendance of the author to present the paper at the 2008 IAC is assured, should the paper be selected for presentation.

Abstract document

IAC-08.A3.3.A2.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-08.A3.3.A2.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

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