Mars-human-exploration-art-astronauts-vehicle-dust-full

Crewed Mars rovers (also called manned Mars rovers) are

Mars rover A Mars rover is a motor vehicle designed to travel on the surface of Mars. Rovers have several advantages over stationary landers: they examine more territory, they can be directed to interesting features, they can place themselves in sunny pos ...

s for transporting people on the planet Mars, and have been conceptualized as part of human missions to that planet. Two types of crewed Mars rovers are unpressurized for a crew in Mars space suits, and pressurized for the crew to work without a space suit. Pressurized rovers have been envisioned for short trips from a Mars base, or may be equipped as a mobile base or laboratory. Crewed Mars rovers are a component of many designs for a human mission to the planet

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...

. For example, the

Austere Human Missions to Mars Austerity is a policy of deficit-cutting, which by definition requires lower spending, higher taxes, or both. Austerity or Austere may also refer to: Music * Austere, a now-defunct Australian black metal duo that featured Tim Yatras as a member ...

proposal included two rovers on its uncrewed power and logistics cargo lander. Each rover could hold a crew of two in a pressurized environment, with power coming from a

Stirling radioisotope generator Radioisotope power systems (RPS) are an enabling technology for challenging solar system exploration missions by NASA to destinations where solar energy is weak or intermittent, or where environmental conditions such as dust can limit the ability of ...

Examples

In the 1960s, the post-

Mariner 4 Mariner 4 (together with Mariner 3 known as Mariner-Mars 1964) was the fourth in a series of spacecraft intended for planetary exploration in a flyby mode. It was designed to conduct closeup scientific observations of Mars and to transmit the ...

design for a

Mars Excursion Module The Mars Excursion Module (MEM) was a spacecraft proposed by NASA in the 1960s for use in a human mission to Mars, and this can refer to any number of studies by corporations and spaceflight centers for Mars landers. However, primarily a MEM ref ...

, by

Marshall Space Flight Center The George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), located in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama (Huntsville postal address), is the U.S. government's civilian rocketry and spacecraft propulsion research center. As the largest NASA center, MSFC's firs ...

, including a cargo version carrying a pressurized Mobile Laboratory for Mars, called MOLAB. One of the ideas for Molab was for it to touch down on its wheels, what was called a "rover first" concept. MOLAB had a pressurized cylinder for crews to operate in a

shirt-sleeve environment "Shirt-sleeve environment" is a term used in aircraft design to describe the interior of an aircraft in which no special clothing need be worn. Early aircraft had no internal pressurization, so the crews of those that reached the stratosphere h ...

even on an extraterrestrial surface.

Mars One Mars One was a small private Dutch organization that received money from investors by claiming it would use it to land the first humans on Mars and leave them there to establish a permanent human colony. From its announcement in 2012 to its ...

, a Mars colonization plan intended to be funded by a TV show, planned an unpressurized crewed rover capable of traveling 80 km (50 miles).

Astrobotic Technology Astrobotic Technology is an American privately held company that is developing space robotics technology for lunar and planetary missions. It was founded in 2007 by Carnegie Mellon professor Red Whittaker and his associates with the goal of ...

was announced as a possible supplier. The Manned Mars Exploration Rover (MMER) won a design award in 2010. Some features included live-aboard capability, a winch, airlock, and six foam core wheels. It featured modular construction so it could be assembled from smaller parts, and the suggested power source was radioisotope batteries. An example of RTG use is the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft, with a radioisotope power system that produced several hundred watts of electrical power. It produces this amount of power continuously with a slow decline over decades, with some of the heat given off by radioactive decay going to the production of electricity and a larger amount radiated as waste. In 2017, the Park Brother's Concepts debuted their Mars Rover design, which featured a six-wheel design, enclosed cab, and a mobile laboratory concept. The rover concept is a Non-NASA design, but did debut at the

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 196 ...

's ''Summer of Mars'' and is back dropped by agencies goal of getting humans to Mars by the early 2030s. ''

Car and Driver ''Car and Driver'' (''CD'' or ''C/D'') is an American automotive enthusiast magazine. In 2006 its total circulation was 1.23 million. It is owned by Hearst Magazines, who purchased prior owner Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. in 2011. It was f ...

'' magazine reported on this event, dubbing the rover a 'Mars Car' and noting the designers and various specifications of the vehicle, such as its size. An example of an in-house NASA design for rover is the wheeled version of the

Space Exploration Vehicle The Space Exploration Vehicle (SEV) is a modular vehicle concept developed by NASA. It would consist of a pressurized cabin that can be mated either with a wheeled chassis to form a rover for planetary surface exploration (on the Moon and els ...

, which has a version for outer space. An early version of the SEV rover was tested in 2008 by NASA in the desert. The SEV for space or roving missions was designed to support two humans for 14-days, and would include a toilet, sleeping logistics, and one version has suitports to support EVAs. Another concept is a windows that allow looking at objects very close to the front of the rover but on surface (down and to the front).

Navigation

For options for keeping track of location as the rover moves around Mars include: *Topographic cues from images *Inertial measurements (see also

Inertial measurement unit An inertial measurement unit (IMU) is an electronic device that measures and reports a body's specific force, angular rate, and sometimes the orientation of the body, using a combination of accelerometers, gyroscopes, and sometimes magnetomet ...

) *A Mars GPS if emplaced *Celestial navigation Navigation on Mars is noted as important issue for human missions to the planet. Celestial navigation, used for over 500 years on Earth, may provide a way of locating on the Mars surface to within about 100 meters (109 yards). Navigation is especially relevant to rovers, because they need to know at least roughly where they are and where they are going to get to a destination.

Dead reckoning In navigation, dead reckoning is the process of calculating current position of some moving object by using a previously determined position, or fix, and then incorporating estimates of speed, heading direction, and course over elapsed time. ...

was the method used by the Mars Pathfinder rover ''Sojourner'' for navigation. A GPS satellite network for Mars would mean a constellation of satellites in Mars orbit, but one alternative would be a surface based pseudo-satellites array. These devices would have to be emplaced with high precision, unless they were self-calibrating.

Rover design

An example of criteria for a crewed Mars surface rover was expressed by NASA in the surface variant of the aforementioned SEV, in development during the 2010s. The 1980s era "Case for Mars" design suggest a medium-range rover with two compartments, one which could be depressurized and opened up to the Mars atmosphere, and a driving compartments which could remain pressurized during this time. The same study also suggested a bigger, long-duration rover with tracks and robotic arms, in addition to other types in that crewed Mars mission concept. Airlock design, especially for EVA, is an area of study for pressurized rovers. Design ideas for crewed and/or pressurized rovers: *Docking hatch – a docking hatch would allow the rover to connect to a Mars surface habitat, ascent stage, or other rover, allowing the passage of people in a pressurized thru-way after docking *Suit port – an integrated combining of the rover with a

Mars suit A Mars suit or Mars space suit is a space suit for Extravehicular activity, EVAs on the planet Mars. Compared to a suit designed for space-walking in the near vacuum of low Earth orbit, Mars suits have a greater focus on actual walking and a need ...

design, allowing a person to enter a Mars suit that has an opening connected to the pressurized interior of the rover, yet the rest of suit exterior remains exposed to the Mars environment. This would avoid having a separate airlock or depressurizing the whole vehicle when opening an exterior hatch *Modular design – this a design concept that would mean making components of the rover able to be swapped for other components in convenient way or disassembled into smaller sections. For example, a rover might able to be broken down it smaller pieces that are assembled on the surface after being landed on the surface of Mars. This would allow for larger rovers to be delivered to the surface of Mars. A modular design would also allow for different work packages, such as a crane,

backhoe A backhoe—also called rear actor or back actor—is a type of excavating equipment, or digger, consisting of a digging bucket on the end of a two-part articulated arm. It is typically mounted on the back of a tractor or front loader, the latt ...

, or cable

winch A winch is a mechanical device that is used to pull in (wind up) or let out (wind out) or otherwise adjust the tension of a rope or wire rope (also called "cable" or "wire cable"). In its simplest form, it consists of a spool (or drum) attach ...

, to be swapped in as needed. *Chariot piloting station – this is a place for a Mars-suited astronaut to control the rover without having to re-enter the pressurized area *Ice-shield heat sink – one idea is to have a 2.5 cm barrier of ice as shielding, and this ice could also be used as a

heat sink A heat sink (also commonly spelled heatsink) is a passive heat exchanger that transfers the heat generated by an electronic or a mechanical device to a fluid medium, often air or a liquid coolant, where it is dissipated away from the device, ...

Additional possible technologies: *

Fuel cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen fuel, hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most bat ...

s and/or high-energy-density batteries *

Regenerative brake Regenerative braking is an energy recovery mechanism that slows down a moving vehicle or object by converting its kinetic energy into a form that can be either used immediately or stored until needed. In this mechanism, the electric traction mo ...

s *Wheels *Light-weight structures and materials *

Active suspension An active suspension is a type of automotive suspension on a vehicle. It uses an onboard system to control the vertical movement of the vehicle's wheels relative to the chassis or vehicle body rather than the passive suspension provided by large sp ...

Avionics Avionics (a blend of ''aviation'' and ''electronics'') are the electronic systems used on aircraft. Avionic systems include communications, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems, and the hundreds of systems that are fit ...

and software *

Extravehicular activity Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environmental support. EVA inc ...

(EVA) support * Thermal control systems * Automated rendezvous and docking A 2004 analysis of a crewed Mars surface mission suggested the following types of rovers: *A light truck, powered by

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane ...

and

oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements ...

*Open rover *Pressurized rover In crewed Mars missions, rovers are sometimes grouped under the term "Mars surface elements".

Unpressurized rover

Unpressurized Mars rovers would lack a pressurized environment for the crew, being functionally similar to the

Lunar Roving Vehicle The Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) is a battery-powered four-wheeled rover used on the Moon in the last three missions of the American Apollo program ( 15, 16, and 17) during 1971 and 1972. It is popularly called the Moon buggy, a play on the ...

. There are several advantages to having an unpressurized rover as opposed to a pressurized variant, such as a reduced weight. Since range of a potential rover that carries crew from base is important, a light weight is an advantage and therefore is a good choice for long range missions. An unpressurized rovers can also be used to move heavy load, travel short distance from base to the location of a bigger pressurized rover.

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