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Detecting Near-Surface Water and Hydrate Minerals on Mars from a Rover, Penetrator, or Borehole: The HYDRA InstrumentOne of the major goals of near term NASA Mars exploration is to identify exact locations of near-surface water or hydrated minerals on Mars. Evidence for the existence of recent nearsurface water on Mars underscores the need for developing instrumentation that can identify water or hydrated minerals very near the surface. Further encouraging evidence of surface and near-surface water and hydrate minerals on Mars comes from neutron spectrometer measurements aboard Mars Odyssey. Preliminary results show very large regions of high hydrogen content poleward of 60 deg. latitude, as well as interesting features closer to the equator. However, spatial resolution from orbit is very poor, approx. 400 km. The next logical step is to use in-situ or near-surface investigations to map in detail some of the most interesting features. Relatively simple instrumentation based on He-3 gas proportional counters were shown to be highly successful on the Lunar Prospector mission in identifying even low levels of enhanced hydrogen abundances. Here we discuss HYDRA, a water- and hydrate-sensing instrument currently being developed under the NASA Mars Instrument Development Program (MIDP). HYDRA is based on Lunar Prospector technology, and is intended as a rover body-mounted instrument, or an instrument on an aerobot, penetrator, hard lander on the surface of Mars, or for borehole stratigraphy applications. Our proposed instrument would be ideal for such platforms as it would be small (less than 7 cm diameter by 10 cm long), low mass (less than 500 g), low power (less than 1W), and have a low data volume per measurement. We use neutron spectrometry (a) because of its proven ability to uniquely detect and quantify hydrogen abundance, and (b) because the resources required by this approach (weight, power, size, telemetry bandwidth, and measurement time) are extremely low. This compact neutron spectrometer package, comprised of two small He-3 gas proportional counters, offers superior sensitivity, extensive flight heritage, and inherent ruggedness. These tubes have survived approx. 1500 g's of acceleration in penetrator tests. In a landed application, HYDRA would help address many topics of interest to the Mars Exploration and Astrobiology communities: (a) nature and origin of stratified deposits; (b) water cycle(s) and temporal changes; (c) early water oceans, aquifers, precipitation; (d) current extent/location/state of water; (e) polar cap processes and temporal changes; (f) where extremeophiles could survive on Mars; (g) paleoclimate surface signatures and modeling; (h) strategies for future Mars exploration.
Document ID
20030066776
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
R C Elphic
(Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos, New Mexico, United States)
D J Lawrence
(Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos, New Mexico, United States)
W C Feldman
(Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos, New Mexico, United States)
R C Wiens
(Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos, New Mexico, United States)
R L Tokar
(Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos, New Mexico, United States)
K R Moore
(Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos, New Mexico, United States)
T H Prettyman
(Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos, New Mexico, United States)
H O Funsten
(Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos, New Mexico, United States)
Date Acquired
August 21, 2013
Publication Date
July 25, 2003
Publication Information
Publication: Sixth International Conference on Mars Proceedings
Publisher: LPI
Issue Publication Date: July 25, 2003
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Science And Exploration
Report/Patent Number
#3057
Meeting Information
Meeting: Sixth International Conference on Mars
Location: Pasadena, CA
Country: US
Start Date: July 20, 2003
End Date: July 25, 2003
Sponsors: Lunar and Planetary Institute
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NCC5-679
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Use by or on behalf of the US Gov. Permitted.
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