The Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Survey (ARES) was a proposal by
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
's
Langley Research Center
The Langley Research Center (LaRC or NASA Langley), located in Hampton, Virginia, United States of America, is the oldest of NASA's field centers. It directly borders Langley Air Force Base and the Back River on the Chesapeake Bay. LaRC has fo ...
to build a robotic, rocket-powered
airplane
An airplane or aeroplane (informally plane) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurations. The broad spe ...
that would fly one mile above the surface of
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...
, in order to investigate the atmosphere, surface, and sub-surface of the planet.
The ARES team, headed by
Dr. Joel S. Levine, sought to be selected and funded as a NASA
Mars Scout Mission for a 2011 or 2013 launch window.
ARES was chosen as one of four finalists in the program, out of 25 potential programs. However, the
Phoenix
Phoenix most often refers to:
* Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore
* Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States
Phoenix may also refer to:
Mythology
Greek mythological figures
* Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...
mission was ultimately chosen instead.
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.
As well as the aforementioned goals, the aircraft would also have investigated the
atmosphere
An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A s ...
of Mars and its
weak magnetic field.
Goals
ARES would have been able to measure the
crustal magnetization, spatial variability, and field magnitude of Mars, as well as resolving the crustal magnetism source structure with a spatial resolution two orders of magnitude higher than the
Mars Global Surveyor
''Mars Global Surveyor'' (MGS) was an American robotic space probe developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and launched November 1996. MGS was a global mapping mission that examined the entire planet, from the ionosphere down through the a ...
.
ARES would also have allowed scientists to help determine the role of water vapor in the Mars atmospheric chemical cycle, and would have searched for potential
biogenic
A biogenic substance is a product made by or of life forms. While the term originally was specific to metabolite compounds that had toxic effects on other organisms, it has developed to encompass any constituents, secretions, and metabolites of p ...
gases, volcanic gases, and chemically active gases to determine their spatial distributions and to locate and/or constrain local sources and sinks. At the same time, ARES would have attempted to characterize the structure and dynamics of the Mars atmosphere's
boundary layer
In physics and fluid mechanics, a boundary layer is the thin layer of fluid in the immediate vicinity of a bounding surface formed by the fluid flowing along the surface. The fluid's interaction with the wall induces a no-slip boundary condi ...
, as well as its water-equivalent hydrogen abundance and ice burial depth over greatly improved spatial scales compared to past missions.
Design
![ARES_Team](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/ARES_Team.jpg)
ARES would transit to Mars via a cruise stage and enter the Martian atmosphere in a traditional
aeroshell
An aeroshell is a rigid heat-shielded shell that helps decelerate and protects a spacecraft vehicle from pressure, heat, and possible debris created by drag during atmospheric entry (see blunt body theory). Its main components consist of a heat ...
with heat shield.
At the right altitude it would unfold itself into its flight configuration.
Propulsion would likely have come from a
bipropellant
The highest specific impulse chemical rockets use liquid propellants (liquid-propellant rockets). They can consist of a single chemical (a monopropellant) or a mix of two chemicals, called bipropellants. Bipropellants can further be divided into ...
rocket engine, which was a focus over other types of propulsion during its development,
but 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.
[ The aircraft was intended to fly for about one hour.
]
See also
*
*
*
* Mars Helicopter ''Ingenuity''
References
External links
TEDtalk: Joel Levine - Why we need to go back to Mars
{{Mars spacecraft
Mars Scout Program
Cancelled spacecraft
Cancelled aircraft projects
NASA aeronautical programs
Extraterrestrial aircraft
Aircraft related to spaceflight