The Mars Scout Program was a NASA initiative to send a series of small, low-cost robotic missions to Mars, competitively selected from innovative proposals by the scientific community. The program had an array of missions destined to reach Mars, and study it at relatively low costs. Each Scout project was to cost less than US$485 million. The Phoenix lander and MAVEN orbiter were selected and developed before the program was retired in 2010.^[1]

First Scout mission [edit]

Ice clouds in the Martian arctic

The first robotic spacecraft in this program was Phoenix, a lander originally intended for the canceled Mars Surveyor mission but adapted to the new mission. Phoenix was launched on August 4, 2007, and landed in the icy northern polar region of the planet on May 25, 2008. Phoenix was designed to search for environments suitable for microbial life on Mars, and to research the history of water there. The 90 day primary mission was successful and the overall mission was concluded on November 10, 2008, after engineers were unable to contact the craft. The lander last made a brief communication with Earth on November 2, 2008.

Second Scout mission [edit]

On September 15, 2008, NASA announced that it had selected MAVEN to be the second mission.^[2][3] This mission was budgeted (as of 2007) for no more than US$475 million.^[4] The mission is programmed for launch late on 2013.

While this mission was originally supposed to be a "double" in which two orbiter units were sent, NASA is currently only planning to fund one mission.^[5] Multiple lines of evidence suggest that Mars lost most of its atmosphere billions of years ago. The MAVEN orbiter would study the current rate of atmospheric loss with an emphasis on the role of the solar wind, whose rapidly moving ions and magnetic field may be responsible for Mars' current condition.

Previous candidates [edit]

Previous missions considered for the Mars Scout Program are listed below:^[6][7]

Ice in craters [edit]

Ice in a fresh Martian impact crater

See also [edit]

• Exploration of Mars

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Mars Scout 2 Mission Profile by NASA's Solar System Exploration
• Mars Scout 3 Mission Profile by NASA's Solar System Exploration
• Scout Missions NewsWire

v t e Spacecraft missions to Mars Present Orbiters Mars Express Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter 2001 Mars Odyssey Rovers Curiosity Opportunity Past Flybys Dawn Mariner 3* Mariner 4 Mariner 6 Mariner 7 Mars 1 Mars 1M No.1* Mars 1M No.2* Mars 2MV-4 No.1* Mars 4 Mars 6 Mars 7 Rosetta Zond 2 Zond 3 Orbiters Fobos-Grunt/Yinghuo-1 Kosmos 419* Mariner 8* Mariner 9 Mars 2 Mars 2M No.521* Mars 2M No.522* Mars 3 Mars 4 Mars 5 Mars 96* Mars Climate Orbiter Mars Global Surveyor Mars Observer Nozomi Phobos 1 Phobos 2 Viking 1 Viking 2 Landers Beagle 2 Mars 2 Mars 2MV-3 No.1* Mars 3 Mars 6 Mars 7 Mars 96* Mars Pathfinder Mars Polar Lander/Deep Space 2 Phoenix Viking 1 Viking 2 Rovers Prop-M Sojourner Spirit Planned Mangalyaan (2013) MAVEN (2013) InSight (2016) ExoMars (2016, 2018) Mars One (from 2016) Inspiration Mars (2018) Unnamed 2020 mission (2020) Proposed ARES BOLD China mission Mars-Aster Mars Geyser Hopper Mars-Grunt Mars sample return mission MELOS MetNet Northern Light Red Dragon SCIM Sky-Sailor Cancelled Astrobiology Field Laboratory Beagle 2: Evolution Mars 4NM Mars 5NM Mars 5M (Mars-79) Mars Astrobiology Explorer-Cacher Mars Surveyor Lander Mars Telecommunications Orbiter NetLander Vesta Voyager * Failed at launch

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