Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Survey

Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Survey

ARES aircraft
Mission type Mars atmospheric probe
Operator NASA
Website marsairplane.larc.nasa.gov
Mission duration 1 hour at Mars

The Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Survey (ARES) was a proposal by NASA's Langley Research Center to build a powered aircraft that would fly on Mars.[1][2][3] The ARES team sought to be selected and funded as a NASA Mars Scout Mission for a 2011[4] or 2013 launch window. However, the MAVEN mission was chosen instead.[5]

ARES would have traveled to Mars compactly folded into a protective aeroshell; upon entry in the thin atmosphere, the capsule would have deployed a parachute to decelerate, followed by ARES release at altitude.

Among other things, the aircraft would have investigated the atmosphere and weak magnetic field.[6]

Propulsion

Propulsion remained undetermined. The two main criteria used to evaluate the propulsion system were flight range and implementation risk. Possible propulsion technologies were electrical motors, internal combustion and rocket systems.[4] The aircraft was intended to fly for about one hour.

See also

References

  1. ↑ P.I: Joel S. Levine (November 20, 2009). "Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Survey". Archived from the original on 28 March 2010. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
  2. ↑ Lewis Page (24 November 2009). "NASA plans robot rocket aeroplane to fly above Mars". Space. The Register. Archived from the original on 23 March 2010. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
  3. ↑ Stuart Fox (November 24, 2009). "NASA Robotic Rocket Plane To Survey Martian Surface". Popular Science. Archived from the original on 14 April 2010. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
  4. 1 2 Christopher A. Kuhl (March 2009), "Design of a Mars Airplane Propulsion System for the Aerial Regional-Scale Environmental Survey (ARES) Mission Concept" (PDF), Mars Mission Concept, p. 10, retrieved 2010-03-26
  5. ↑ Grey Hautaluoma (Dec 21, 2007). "NASA Delays Mars Scout Mission to 2013". NASA. Archived from the original on 24 May 2011. Retrieved 2011-05-25.
  6. ↑ "ARES - Ensuring Reliability". NASA - Langley Research Center. January 14, 2010. Archived from the original on 29 March 2010. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
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