Regenerative life support systems--why do we need them?

Human exploration of the solar system will include missions lasting years at a time. Such missions mandate extensive regeneration of life support consumables with efficient utilization of local planetary resources. As mission durations extend beyond one or two years, regenerable human life support systems which supply food and recycle air, water, and wastes become feasible; resupply of large volumes and masses of food, water, and atmospheric gases become unrealistic. Additionally, reduced dependency on resupply or self sufficiency can be an added benefit to human crews in hostile environments far from the security of Earth. Comparisons of resupply and regeneration will be discussed along with possible scenarios for developing and implementing human life support systems on the Moon and Mars.     

Planetary Protection Policy (U.S.A.).

Through existing treaty obligations of the United States, NASA is committed to exploring space while avoiding biological contamination of the planets, and to the protection of the Earth against harm from materials returned from space. Because of the similarities between Mars and Earth, plans for the exploration of Mars evoke discussions of these Planetary Protection issues. US Planetary Protection Policy will be focused on the preservation of these goals in an arena that will change with the growth of scientific knowledge about the martian environment. Early opportunities to gain the appropriate data will be used to guide later policy implementation. Because human presence on Mars will result in the end of Earth's separation from the martian environment, it is expected that precursor robotic missions will address critical planetary protection concerns before humans arrive.     

Planetary protection issues and the future exploration of Mars.

A primary scientific theme for the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) is the search for life, extant or extinct, on Mars. Because of this, concerns about Planetary Protection (PP), the prevention of biological cross-contamination between Earth and other planets during solar system exploration missions, have arisen. A recent workshop assessed the necessity for, and impact of, PP requirements on the unmanned and human missions to Mars comprising the SEI. The following ground-rules were adopted: 1) information needed for assessing PP issues must be obtained during the unmanned precursor mission phase prior to human landings; 2) returned Mars samples will be considered biologically hazardous until proven otherwise; 3) deposition of microbes on Mars and exposure of the crew to Martian materials are inevitable when humans land; and, 4) human landings are unlikely until it is demonstrated that there is no harmful effect of Martian materials on terrestrial life forms. These ground-rules dictated the development of a conservative PP strategy for precursor missions. Key features of the proposed strategy include: 1) for prevention of forward contamination, all orbiters will follow Mars Observer PP procedures for assembly, trajectory, and lifetime. All landers will follow Viking PP procedures for assembly, microbial load reduction, and bioshield; and, 2) for prevention of back contamination, all sample return missions will have PP requirements which include fail-safe sample sealing, breaking contact chain with the Martian surface, and containment and quarantine analysis in an Earth-based lab. In addition to deliberating on scientific and technical issues, the workshop made several recommendations for dealing with forward and back contamination concerns from non-scientific perspectives.     

Planetary protection issues in advance of human exploration of Mars.

Current planetary quarantine considerations focus on robotic missions and attempt a policy of no biological contamination. The presence of humans on Mars, however, will inevitably result in biological contamination and physical alteration of the local environment. The focus of planetary quarantine must therefore shift toward defining and minimizing the inevitable contamination associated with humans. This will involve first determining those areas that will be affected by the presence of a human base, then verifying that these environments do not harbor indigenous life nor provide sites for Earth bacteria to grow. Precursor missions can provide salient information that can make more efficient the planning and design of human exploration missions. In particular, a robotic sample return mission can help to eliminate the concern about returning samples with humans or the return of humans themselves from a planetary quarantine perspective. Without a robotic return the cost of quarantine that would have to be added to a human mission may well exceed the cost of a robotic return mission. Even if the preponderance of scientific evidence argues against the presence of indigenous life, it must be considered as part of any serious planetary quarantine analysis for missions to Mars. If there is life on Mars, the question of human exploration assumes an ethical dimension.     

火星车双向抽展式转移坡道展开原理及特性分析

我国首次火星探测任务将于2020年实施,一步实现"绕""着""巡"的目标。着陆器在火星表面软着陆后,火星车能否沿转移坡道安全转移至火星表面,关系着本次任务的成败。从火星车转移坡道功能要求出发,提出了一种双向抽展式转移坡道方案,解决了大展出比、驱动共用、可靠展开等关键问题,对其展开原理及力学特性进行分析,并开展了模拟火星重力环境的展开试验,为我国火星车转移坡道设计提供参考。     

A Novel Magnetic Configuration for Space Radiation Active Shielding

Space radiation has been identified as the main health hazard to crews involved in manned Mars missions. Active shielding is more effective than passive shielding to the very energetic particles from cosmic rays. Particle motion in a magnetic field is studied based on the single-particle theory and Monte Carlo method. By comparing the shielding efficiency of different magnetic field configurations, a novel active magnetic shielding configuration with lower mass cost and power consumption is proposed for manned Mars missions. The new magnetic configuration can shield 92.8% of protons and 84.4% of alpha particles with E < 4 GeV·n-1, when considering the passive shielding contribution of 10.0 g·cm-2 Al Shielding, the required magnetic stiffness can be reduced from 27 Tm to 16 Tm. The detailed analysis of mass cost and power consumption shows that active shielding will be a promising means to protect crews from space radiation exposure in manned Mars missions.      

载人火星探测的行星保护

行星保护是影响载人火星探索任务的重要问题之一。载人探测的行星保护包括3个方面,即防止来源于地球的微生物污染目标星球的正向污染防护、防止外来生物对地球的潜在危害的逆向污染防护,以及确保航天员的健康和安全。国际宇航界已经开始针对载人火星探测的行星保护制定政策法规和开展技术研讨。本文介绍了行星保护的定义和法理依据,简要回顾了美国国家航空航天局在“阿波罗登月”中的行星保护措施,并对未来载人火星探测中的主要污染物、污染途径以及污染防护策略进行了初步探讨。     

“天问一号”火星探测器关键任务系统设计

“天问一号”任务是我国行星探测的首次任务,在国际上首次通过一次任务实现了火星“环绕、着陆、巡视”的三步跨越.“天问一号”探测器由中国空间技术研究院负责抓总研制,包括环绕器和着陆巡视器两个组成部分.对“天问一号”探测器的任务特点和概貌进行了介绍,对包括飞行过程、远距离深空通信、火星捕获过程、火星进入下降及着陆过程、火星车解锁驶离和火面工作等关键环节的设计方案进行了描述,对“天问一号”所取得的技术成果与创新进行了总结.     

Exobiological exploration of Mars.

Of all the other planets in the solar system, Mars remains the most promising for further elucidating concepts about chemical evolution and the origin of life. Strategies were developed to pursue three exobiological objectives for Mars exploration: determining the abundance and distribution of the biogenic elements and organic compounds, detecting evidence of an ancient biota on Mars, and determining whether indigenous organisms exist anywhere on the planet. The three strategies are quite similar and, in fact, share the same sequence of phases. In the first phase, each requires global reconnaissance and remote sensing by orbiters to select sites of interest for detailed in situ analyses. In the second phase, lander missions are conducted to characterize the chemical and physical properties of the selected sites. The third phase involves conducting "critical" experiments at sites whose properties make them particularly attractive for exobiology. These critical experiments would include, for example, identification of organics, detection of fossils, and detection of extant life. The fourth phase is the detailed analysis of samples returned from these sites in Earth-based laboratories to confirm and extend previous discoveries. Finally, in the fifth phase, human exploration is needed to establish the geological settings for the earlier findings or to discover and explore sites that are not accessible to robotic spacecraft.     

Selection of sterilization methods for planetary return missions.

Two tasks must be accomplished to provide planetary protection for Mars return missions: (1) sterilization of the scientific module to be landed on Mars and (2) reliable sterilization of all material returned to Earth, while ensuring the scientific integrity of martian samples. This paper examines similarity and differences between these two tasks, and includes a discussion of technological implementation conditions and the nature of terrestrial and hypothesized martian microflora. The feasibility of a number of chemical and physical (ultraviolet and ionizing radiation and heating) methods of sterilization for use on the ground and onboard are discussed and compared. A combination of different methods will probably be selected as the most appropriate for ensuring planetary protection on the return mission.     

Planetary protection program for Mars 94/96 mission.

Mars surface in-situ exploration started in 1975 with the American VIKING mission. Two probes landed on the northern hemisphere and provided, for the first time, detailed information on the martian terrain, atmosphere and meteorology. The current goal is to undertake larger surface investigations and many projects are being planned by the major Space Agencies with this objective. Among these projects, the Mars 94/96 mission will make a major contributor toward generating significant information about the martian surface on a large scale. Since the beginning of the Solar System exploration, planets where life could exist have been subject to planetary protection requirements. Those requirements accord with the COSPAR Policy and have two main goals: the protection of the planetary environment from influence or contamination by terrestrial microorganisms, the protection of life science, and particularly of life detection experiments searching extra-terrestrial life, and not life carried by probes and spacecrafts. As the conditions for life and survival for terrestrial microorganisms in the Mars environment became known, COSPAR recommendations were updated. This paper will describe the decontamination requirements which will be applied for the MARS 94/96 mission, the techniques and the procedures which are and will be used to realize and control the decontamination of probes and spacecrafts.     

Development Progress of China's First Mars Exploration Mission: Its Scientific Objectives and Payloads

China's first Mars exploration mission is scheduled to be launched in 2020. It aims not only to conduct global and comprehensive exploration of Mars by use of an orbiter but also to carry out in situ observation of key sites on Mars with a rover. This mission focuses on the following studies:topography, geomorphology, geological structure, soil characteristics, water-ice distribution, material composition, atmosphere and ionosphere, surface climate, environmental characteristics, Mars internal structure, and Martian magnetic field. It is comprised of an orbiter, a lander, and a rover equipped with 13 scientific payloads. This article will give an introduction to the mission including mission plan, scientific objectives, scientific payloads, and its recent development progress.      

Vision and Voyages for Deep Space Exploration

More than 50 years of space exploration has not only satisfied human curiosity and built up international cooperation, but also improved life on Earth. Space exploration is an open-ended process which started 50 years ago. It enables access to unknown terrains with robots and humans, thereby opening new frontiers. Progress of goal deep space exploration was reviewed. China's current deep space missions are also briefly introduced. Focused on the vision and voyages for China's deep space exploration in 5 or 10 years. Like the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP), we embark on a journey to Mars. We will spend few decades on Mars with the robotic explorers. Unlike CLEP, scientists proposed to build Moon research station by 2030.      

Scientific objectives and payloads of Tianwen-1, China’s first Mars exploration mission

This paper describes the scientific objectives and payloads of Tianwen-1, China’s first exploration mission to Mars. An orbiter, carrying a lander and a rover, lifted-off in July 2020 for a journey to Mars where it should arrive in February 2021. A suite of 13 scientific payloads, for in-situ and remote sensing, autonomously commanded by integrated payload controllers and mounted on the orbiter and the rover will study the magnetosphere and ionosphere of Mars and the relation with the solar wind, the atmosphere, surface and subsurface of the planet, looking at the topography, composition and structure and in particular for subsurface ice. The mission will also investigate Mars climate history. It is expected that Tianwen-1 will contribute significantly to advance our scientific knowledge of Mars.     

In-situ resource utilization technologies for Mars life support systems.

The atmosphere of Mars has many of the ingredients that can be used to support human exploration missions. It can be "mined" and processed to produce oxygen, buffer gas, and water, resulting in significant savings on mission costs. The use of local materials, called ISRU (for in-situ resource utilization), is clearly an essential strategy for a long-term human presence on Mars from the standpoints of self-sufficiency, safety, and cost. Currently a substantial effort is underway by NASA to develop technologies and designs of chemical plants to make propellants from the Martian atmosphere. Consumables for life support, such as oxygen and water, will probably benefit greatly from this ISRU technology development for propellant production. However, the buffer gas needed to dilute oxygen for breathing is not a product of a propellant production plant. The buffer gas needs on each human Mars mission will probably be in the order of metric tons, primarily due to losses during airlock activity. Buffer gas can be separated, compressed, and purified from the Mars atmosphere. This paper discusses the buffer gas needs for a human mission to Mars and consider architectures for the generation of buffer gas including an option that integrates it to the propellant production plant.     

MEP (Mars Environment Package): toward a package for studying environmental conditions at the surface of Mars from future lander/rover missions.

In view to prepare Mars human exploration, it is necessary to promote and lead, at the international level, a highly interdisciplinary program, involving specialists of geochemistry, geophysics, atmospheric science, space weather, and biology. The goal of this program will be to elaborate concepts of individual instruments, then of integrated instrumental packages, able to collect exhaustive data sets of environmental parameters from future landers and rovers of Mars, and to favour the conditions of their implementation. Such a program is one of the most urgent need for preparing human exploration, in order to develop mitigation strategies aimed at ensuring the safety of human explorers, and minimizing risk for surface operations. A few main areas of investigation may be listed: particle and radiation environment, chemical composition of atmosphere, meteorology, chemical composition of dust, surface and subsurface material, water in the subsurface, physical properties of the soil, search for an hypothesized microbial activity, characterization of radio-electric properties of the Martian ionosphere. Scientists at the origin of the present paper, already involved at a high degree of responsibility in several Mars missions, and actively preparing in situ instrumentation for future landed platforms (Netlander--now cancelled, MSL-09), express their readiness to participate in both ESA/AURORA and NASA programs of Mars human exploration. They think that the formation of a Mars Environment working group at ESA, in the course of the AURORA definition phase, could act positively in favour of the program, by increasing its scientific cross-section and making it still more focused on human exploration.     

基于栅格地图的火星车路径规划方法

火星车路径规划是实现火星车完成预定探测任务的关键。然而传统路径规划算法,如A*和D*等,存在计算速度较慢,算法复杂度较高等问题。本文将对传统路径规划方法 A*法改进并且得到一种快速高效的全局路径规划算法,之后结合合适的局部避障算法,得到一种基于栅格地图的完整的火星车路径规划方法,最后通过仿真验证了此方法的有效性及合理性。     

Detection of martian amino acids by chemical derivatization coupled to gas chromatography: in situ and laboratory analysis.

If there is, or ever was, life in our solar system beyond the Earth, Mars is the most likely place to search for. Future space missions will have then to take into account the detection of prebiotic molecules or molecules of biological significance such as amino acids. Techniques of analysis used for returned samples have to be very sensitive and avoid any chemical or biological contamination whereas in situ techniques have to be automated, fast and low energy consuming. Several possible methods could be used for in situ amino acid analyses on Mars, but gas chromatography would likely be the most suitable. Returned samples could be analyzed by any method in routine laboratory use such as gas chromatography, already successfully performed for analyses of organic matter including amino acids from martian meteorites. The derivatization step, which volatilizes amino acids to perform both in situ and laboratory analysis by gas chromatography, is discussed here.     

火星探测VLBI测定轨技术

我国将于2020年首次发射由环绕器和着陆巡视器组成的火星探测器,火星探测器的跟踪及精密测定轨是完成工程任务和科学探测的基础。火星探测器的跟踪和测定轨,目前主要采用基于地面无线电测量的测距、测速和甚长基线干涉VLBI测角3种手段。主要针对VLBI技术予以介绍,主要内容为:△DOR型VLBI技术在国内外的应用情况、火星探测器VLBI测定轨技术分析、基于同波束VLBI的火星车定位技术、火星探测器VLBI观测等。这些内容对我国的火星探测器测定轨有重要的应用价值。