Mars Scout 13
Full Name: Mars Scout 13
Phase: Under study
Launch Date: 2013
Mission Project Home Page: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/dec/HQ_07283_Mars_Scout_Missions.html
Program(s): Mars Exploration
In the first round of the Mars Scout 2006 competition, two missions for 2011 were selected from 26 proposals for further evaluation in a concept study phase. The selected missions were the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN mission, or MAVEN and the The Great Escape, or TGE, mission. The principal investigator for MAVEN is Bruce Jakosky, University of Colorado, Boulder. The TGE principal investigator is Jim Burch, Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio. Both missions would provide similar measurements of Mars' upper atmosphere, including its dynamics and evolution, which have been given a high priority by the scientific community. NASA will fund current proposals to meet a new launch date in 2013.
The Mars Scout Program is designed to send a series of small, low-cost missions to the Red Planet that are competitively selected. The first robotic spacecraft in this program is the Phoenix lander, which was launched Aug. 4, 2007, and is scheduled to land in the icy northern polar region of Mars on May 25, 2008.
NASA's Mars Exploration Program seeks to characterize and understand Mars as a dynamic system, including its present and past environment, climate cycles, geology and biological potential. The Mars Exploration Program Office is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for the Mars Exploration Program, Science Mission Directorate, Washington, DC.