Mars Aerobot Validation Program

The Mars Balloon Validation Program (MABVAP) was initiated in August 1997 to develop and validate key technologies needed for aerobot missions on Mars. The major elements of the program are the development of balloons for flight on Mars, robust techniques for deployment and inflation and modeling and simulation of balloon flight paths. selection, development and tests of available balloon materials, design and fabrication of balloons (both superpressure and solar- heated), design and fabrication of deployment and inflation systems for aerial deployment, design and fabrication of avionics to control deployment/inflation process and to get telemetry and video data. Modeling of main processes during deployment and actual flight is also a part of MABVAP. In order to validate deployment and inflation, MABVAP applies experience from previous Mars balloon development or study activities the Russian-French Mars Aerostat Project (1988-1995), Mars Aerial Platform Study (1994) and Mars Aerobot/Balloon Study (1996). The program includes laboratory, wind tunnel, vacuum chamber tests of the system components and a number of tropospheric and stratospheric flight tests of deployment and inflation of lightfilm balloons in a simulated Martian environment.