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Mission Design Challenge

Search for Ancient Water on Mars

Saved locally on this device
Learning goals
  • Match instruments to the science goals of the challenge.
  • Balance mass, power, cost, risk, and communication throughput.
  • Explain your design tradeoffs in your own words.
Help & glossary
  • Meters update in real time so you can see the impact of each choice.
  • Errors are red; warnings are amber. You can still launch with warnings.
  • Your written explanation stays on this device.

This is an educational mission-design simulation. Scores and simplified engineering values do not represent an approved or operational NASA mission.

1. Briefing2. Platform3. Power4. Comms5. Instruments6. Timeline7. Explanation8. Results

Mission briefing

Design a rover mission to find evidence of past water on Mars. You'll need instruments that can identify minerals that only form in water, imaging to pick landing sites, and a way to dig below the dusty surface.

Destination
Mars — Jezero-like crater basin
Mission type
Rover
Environment
dusty, cold-night, thin-atmosphere, radiation

Science goals

  • Identify minerals that formed in liquid water.
  • Image landing site and geology.
  • Sample below the surface to study protected material.

Sources