The Mars Telecommunications Orbiter (MTO) was a cancelled Mars mission that was originally intended to launch in 2009 and would have established an Interplanetary Internet between Earth and Mars. The spacecraft would have arrived in a high orbit above Mars in 2010 and relayed data packets to Earth from a variety of Mars landers, rovers and orbiters for as long as ten years, at an extremely high data rate. Such a dedicated communications satellite was thought to be necessary due to the vast quantity of scientific information to be sent to Earth by landers such as the

Mars Science Laboratory Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is a robotic space probe mission to Mars launched by NASA on November 26, 2011, which successfully landed ''Curiosity'', a Mars rover, in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012. The overall objectives include investigati ...

. On July 21, 2005, it was announced that MTO had been canceled due to the need to support other short-term goals, including a Hubble servicing mission,

Mars Exploration Rover NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission was a robotic space mission involving two Mars rovers, '' Spirit'' and '' Opportunity'', exploring the planet Mars. It began in 2003 with the launch of the two rovers to explore the Martian surface ...

extended mission operations, launch Mars Science Laboratory in 2009, and to prevent Earth science mission Glory from being cancelled.

Data transfer technology

The Mars Telecommunications Orbiter would have carried Mars Laser Communication Demonstration to demonstrate

laser communication in space Laser communication in space is the use of free-space optical communication in outer space. Communication may be fully in space (an inter-satellite laser link) or in a ground-to-satellite or satellite-to-ground application. The main advantage ...

(

optical communications Optical communication, also known as optical telecommunication, is communication at a distance using light to carry information. It can be performed visually or by using electronic devices. The earliest basic forms of optical communication date ...

), instead of usual radiowaves. "Lasercom sends information using beams of light and optical elements, such as telescopes and optical amplifiers, rather than RF signals, amplifiers, and antennas." MTO would have had two 15 W X-band radio transmitters, and two Ka-band radio transmitters (35 W operational, and 100 W experimental).

Proposed successors

After the cancellation, a broader mission was proposed as the ''Mars Science and Telecommunications Orbiter''. However, this mission was soon criticized as lacking well-defined parameters and objectives. Another mission has since been proposed as the ''2013 Mars Science Orbiter''. The communications capability provided by the

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter ''Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter'' (MRO) is a spacecraft designed to study the geology and climate of Mars, provide reconnaissance of future landing sites, and relay data from surface missions back to Earth. It was launched on August 12, 2005, an ...

and

Mars Express ''Mars Express'' is a space exploration mission being conducted by the European Space Agency (ESA). The ''Mars Express'' mission is exploring the planet Mars, and is the first planetary mission attempted by the agency. "Express" originally ref ...

science missions has proven substantial, demonstrating that dedicated relay satellites may be unnecessary in the near future. The two newest science orbiters are the

MAVEN MAVEN is an American spacecraft orbiting Mars to study the loss of its atmospheric gases to space, providing insight into the history of the planet's climate and water. The spacecraft name is an acronym for "Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolu ...

, which arrived at Mars on September 21, 2014 with an Electra

transceiver In radio communication, a transceiver is an electronic device which is a combination of a radio ''trans''mitter and a re''ceiver'', hence the name. It can both transmit and receive radio waves using an antenna, for communication purposes. Thes ...

; and the 2016 European

ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO or ExoMars Orbiter) is a collaborative project between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Roscosmos agency that sent an atmospheric science, atmospheric research orbiter and the Schiaparelli EDM, ...

, that also carries an Electra UHF band

. But both follow science orbits not designed for relay communications. Around 2014, a concern in NASA is that the currently used relay satellite,

Mars Odyssey ''2001 Mars Odyssey'' is a robotic spacecraft orbiting the planet Mars. The project was developed by NASA, and contracted out to Lockheed Martin, with an expected cost for the entire mission of US$297 million. Its mission is to use spectro ...

, may fail, resulting in the need to press

science orbiter into use as the backup telecommunications relay, but the highly elliptical orbit of MAVEN will limit its usefulness as a relay for operating landers on the surface. As of 2018, the proposed

Next Mars Orbiter The Next Mars Orbiter (NeMO, earlier known as the Mars 2022 orbiter) is a proposed NASA Mars communications satellite with high-resolution imaging payload and two solar-electric ion thrusters. The orbiter was initially proposed to be launched ...

(NeMO) is to be a dedicated telecommunications orbiter with a robust science package, tentatively planned for the late 2020s. It is anticipated to employ a

laser communication Free-space optical communication (FSO) is an optical communication technology that uses light propagating in free space to wirelessly transmit data for telecommunications or computer networking. "Free space" means air, outer space, vacuum, or ...

subsystem, that was successfully tested aboard the

Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE; ) was a NASA lunar exploration and technology demonstration mission. It was launched on a Minotaur V rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on September 7, 2013. During its se ...

mission in 2013.LADEE
/ref>

References

{{Mars spacecraft Missions to Mars Proposed NASA space probes Cancelled spacecraft Laser communication in space

Data transfer technology

Proposed successors

See also

References