Balloon-borne characterization of the Martian surface and lower atmosphere

A recent NASA-sponsored design course at Utah State University (USU) has focused upon a Mars Lander/Rover system designed to descend from a Martian orbit and deploy both surface and balloon-borne instruments to examine the Martian surface and lower atmosphere. The latter stages of the USU design effort placed major emphasis on the design of the balloon rover. This paper presents the results of that emphasis by discussing the payload requirements, identification of the design parameters, surface vs. descent deployment, design tradeoff studies, site-influenced departures from the baseline design, the final design concept, and the resulting balloon performance. A single hydrogen superpressure balloon is selected for use in the design mission. The paper concludes that characterization of the Martian surface and lower atmosphere by a descent-deployed, balloon-borne rover is a viable concept that should be actively pursued.