On February 3rd NASA issued a press release that got little notice stating they and three international partners, including Canada, had signed a statement of intent to assess a mission to map ice on Mars. The press release made sure to tie into the lunar Artemis program. There’s just one thing though, Canada had already signed on to a similar NASA mission and even had former Minister Navdeep Bains announce the first contract as part of the 2017 budget process. Intrigued? Read on.
After NASA issued the press release, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) retweeted the NASA tweet which said “We are in talks with our international partners to explore how Canada could contribute to a potential mission to map ice on #Mars, creating new opportunities for the Flag of Canada space sector and scientists.” The other two space agencies interested in the mission are the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
As soon as I saw the tweet, and image, it occurred to me there was something familiar about this mission. A little searching through the SpaceQ archives and voila. I had my answer. The mission was called the “Next Mars Orbiter” or NeMo.
It was supposed to be a NASA Mars communication orbiter that included, yes, a Canadian built synthetic aperture radar sub-surface ice sounder to find and map ice deposits, and was originally planned to launch in July of 2022.
On April 27, 2017 then Innovation Science and Economic Development (ISED) Minister Navdeep Bains announced $80.9 million in new funding for the CSA including confirming Canada intended to move forward with its commitment to the NASA NeMO mission. On March 17 of 2017 the CSA had already awarded MDA a contract for a concept study. Western University was the lead academic institutions involved which included Brock University, University of Winnipeg, Simon Fraser University, University of Ottawa and Dawson College in Quebec.
While the mission never got out of the concept phase, it now looks like the CSA will dust off the work that’s already been done and bring the Canadian contribution back to life, though there will likely be some changes.
An updated ice mapping mission
The new “international Mars Ice Mapper mission would detect the location, depth, spatial extent, and abundance of near-surface ice deposits, which would enable the science community to interpret a more detailed volatile history of Mars. The radar-carrying orbiter would also help identify properties of the dust, loose rocky material – known as regolith – and rock layers that might impact the ability to access ice.”
NASA is framing this, or should I say selling this, as an approach similar to the lunar Artemis program. NASA said “the ice-mapping mission could help the agency identify potential science objectives for initial human missions to Mars, which are expected to be designed for about 30 days of exploration on the surface. For example, identifying and characterizing accessible water ice could lead to human-tended science, such as ice coring to support the search for life. Mars Ice Mapper also could provide a map of water-ice resources for later human missions with longer surface expeditions, as well as help meet exploration engineering constraints, such as avoidance of rock and terrain hazards. Mapping shallow water ice could also support supplemental high-value science objectives related to Martian climatology and geology.”
“This approach is similar to what NASA is doing at the Moon under the Artemis program – sending astronauts to lunar South Pole, where ice is trapped in the permanently shadowed regions of the pole.”
The ‘new’ international Ice Mapping Mission should it go ahead could launch as early as 2026.