PMID- 17723090
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20071012
LR  - 20070828
IS  - 1531-1074 (Print)
IS  - 1557-8070 (Linking)
VI  - 7
IP  - 4
DP  - 2007 Aug
TI  - A concept for NASA's Mars 2016 astrobiology field laboratory.
PG  - 545-77
AB  - The Mars Program Plan includes an integrated and coordinated set of future 
      candidate missions and investigations that meet fundamental science objectives of 
      NASA and the Mars Exploration Program (MEP). At the time this paper was written, 
      these possible future missions are planned in a manner consistent with a 
      projected budget profile for the Mars Program in the next decade (2007-2016). As 
      with all future missions, the funding profile depends on a number of factors that 
      include the exact cost of each mission as well as potential changes to the 
      overall NASA budget. In the current version of the Mars Program Plan, the 
      Astrobiology Field Laboratory (AFL) exists as a candidate project to determine 
      whether there were (or are) habitable zones and life, and how the development of 
      these zones may be related to the overall evolution of the planet. The AFL 
      concept is a surface exploration mission equipped with a major in situ laboratory 
      capable of making significant advancements toward the Mars Program's life-related 
      scientific goals and the overarching Vision for Space Exploration. We have 
      developed several concepts for the AFL that fit within known budget and 
      engineering constraints projected for the 2016 and 2018 Mars mission launch 
      opportunities. The AFL mission architecture proposed here assumes maximum 
      heritage from the 2009 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). Candidate payload elements 
      for this concept were identified from a set of recommendations put forth by the 
      Astrobiology Field Laboratory Science Steering Group (AFL SSG) in 2004, for the 
      express purpose of identifying overall rover mass and power requirements for such 
      a mission. The conceptual payload includes a Precision Sample Handling and 
      Processing System that would replace and augment the functionality and 
      capabilities provided by the Sample Acquisition Sample Processing and Handling 
      system that is currently part of the 2009 MSL platform.
FAU - Beegle, Luther W
AU  - Beegle LW
AD  - Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 
      91109, USA. Luther.Beegle@jpl.nasa.gov
FAU - Wilson, Michael G
AU  - Wilson MG
FAU - Abilleira, Fernando
AU  - Abilleira F
FAU - Jordan, James F
AU  - Jordan JF
FAU - Wilson, Gregory R
AU  - Wilson GR
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PL  - United States
TA  - Astrobiology
JT  - Astrobiology
JID - 101088083
SB  - IM
MH  - *Exobiology
MH  - Laboratories
MH  - *Mars
MH  - Space Flight
MH  - United States
MH  - United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration
EDAT- 2007/08/29 09:00
MHDA- 2007/10/13 09:00
CRDT- 2007/08/29 09:00
PHST- 2007/08/29 09:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2007/10/13 09:00 [medline]
PHST- 2007/08/29 09:00 [entrez]
AID - 10.1089/ast.2007.0153 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Astrobiology. 2007 Aug;7(4):545-77. doi: 10.1089/ast.2007.0153.