Spaceflight
NASA has requested information on entry, descent and landing technologies for 100kg (220lb) Mars probes that would be either soft landers or surface penetrators. The landers could act as a surface network monitoring the climate and obtaining data aboutMars's interior, writes Rob Coppinger.
The US space agency is planning to deploy multiple probes from its Mars Science Orbiter vehicle, which is scheduled to fly in 2013. At less than 100kg the landers would be about half the mass of NASA's Spirit and Opportunity rovers, which were landed using parachutes and air bags.
"The government could initiate acquisition of landing technologies and techniques as soon as early 2008," says the NASA request for information. Data to be provided includes the expected cost to develop a proposed technology to flight readiness.
NASA's next Mars mission is the Phoenix lander, which is to be launched in August to search for water. The agency's most recent mission was Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, it arrived in orbit in March and has provided detailed images of the planet's surface.
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