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Session Proposal: Aerial Exploration of Mars (AGU25)

P002
Aerial Exploration of Mars

Session ID#: 250381

Session Description:
Semi-autonomous rotorcraft have revolutionized terrestrial geological and atmospheric science. Their ability to explore high and low, far and wide allows them to deploy instrumentation and collect remote-sensing data in regions and from perspectives otherwise difficult or impossible to access. The success of the Ingenuity Mars helicopter similarly opens prospects for transforming the study of Mars. Rotorcraft on Mars can facilitate geological and geophysical investigations, enable atmospheric measurements, and assist human exploration. Future missions to Mars could involve these aircraft as complements to ground-bound assets, such as rovers or fixed stations, or as stand-alone vehicles. This session welcomes presentations that consider how small rotorcraft may advance our understanding of Mars, both past and present. Submissions on aircraft-enabled Mars science, missions, and human exploration are all welcome. For details of additional activities, including a social, see http://boi.st/AGU-2025-Mars-UAS or e-mail Brian Jackson at bjackson@boisestate.edu.
Index Terms:

5405 Atmospheres [PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLID SURFACE PLANETS]
5494 Instruments and techniques [PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLID SURFACE PLANETS]
6225 Mars [PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS]
6297 Instruments and techniques [PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS]
Primary Convener:  Brian Jackson, Boise State University, Boise, ID, United States
Conveners:  Travis Brown, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA, Pasadena, United States, Samantha Gwizd, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, United States and John E Moores, York University, Earth & Space Science & Engineering, Toronto, ON, Canada
 
Condor: A Mars Helicopter Mission Concept to Explore Planetary Formation and Early Evolution in Valles Marineris (Invited) (1866785)
Abigail A Fraeman1, William Rapin2, Victor Tricaud3, Jonathan Bapst1, Joseph Levy4, Laura Jones-Wilson1, Roland Brockers1, Bethany L Ehlmann5, Kimberly Sneeder1, Jared R Espley6, Flahaut Jessica7, Matt Golombek8, Mathieu Gaetan Andre Lapotre9, Robert J Lillis10, Anna Mittelholz11, Valerie Payre12, Cathy Quantin Nataf3, Kirsten Siebach13, Arya Udry14, Benjamin P Weiss15, Justin Boland16 and Theodore Tzanetos1, (1)NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, United States, (2)Universite de Toulouse, Toulouse Cedex 4, France, (3)LGLTPE Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon : Terre, Planètes et Environnement, Villeurbanne Cedex, France, (4)Colgate University, Earth and Environmental Geosciences, Hamilton, United States, (5)California Institute of Technology, Geological and Planetary Sciences, Pasadena, CA, United States, (6)Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, United States, (7)Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques, Vandoeuvre-LES-Nancy, France, (8)JPL/NASA/Caltech, BOISE, United States, (9)Stanford University, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Stanford, CA, United States, (10)Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, United States, (11)ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, (12)University of Iowa, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Iowa City, IA, United States, (13)Rice University, Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, Houston, TX, United States, (14)University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, United States, (15)MIT, Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Cambridge, United States, (16)Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States
 
Miniaturized Gamma-Ray and Neutron Spectrometer for Mars Helicopter Science (1875359)
Craig J Hardgrove1, Erik Bjorn Johnson2, Insoo Jun3, Yuki Maruyama4, Wousik Kim4, Xiaoyu Zhu4, Jonathan Hunacek4 and Matthew Klein4, (1)Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States, (2)Radiation Monitoring Devices Inc., Auburn, United States, (3)NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (4)NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, United States
 
Aerial Exploration of Young Volcanic Terrains and Subsurface Volatiles on Mars (Invited) (1901466)
Joana R C Voigt1, Gregor Steinbrügge1, Sean Thomas Peters2, Thorsteinn Kristinsson2, Christopher W Hamilton3, Serina Diniega1 and Andrew Romero-Wolf4,5, (1)Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States, (2)University of Colorado at Boulder, Aerospace Engineering Sciences, Boulder, United States, (3)University of Arizona, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, Tucson, United States, (4)Physical Insights, LLC, Kaneohe, United States, (5)Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, United States
 
Local Scale Magnetic Surveys at Mars via Aerial Vehicles (1964646)
Jared R Espley1, Juan Martin de Blas1,2, Rachel Maxwell1,3, Yasmina M. Martos1,2, Anna Mittelholz4, Jacob A Richardson1 and David Sheppard5, (1)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, United States, (2)University of Maryland College Park, College Park, United States, (3)University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, United States, (4)ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, (5)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States
 
Little Drone, Big Science: Mars Science from Drones with Limited Payload (1976852)
Brian Jackson, Boise State University, Boise, ID, United States, Catherine Neish, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada, John E Moores, York University, Earth & Space Science & Engineering, Toronto, ON, Canada and Jason Rabinovitch, Stevens Institute of Technology, Mechanical Engineering, Hoboken, United States
 
Skyfall: A Human Precursor Mission Concept for Mars – Prospecting for Water Ice and First Heavy Landing Sites (1998571)
Havard Grip, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, La Crescenta, CA, UNITED STATES, Theodore Tzanetos, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, United States, Nathan R Williams, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States and Joseph Beckman, AeroVironment, Inc., Moorpark, United States
 
Mars Analog Field Testing Reveals Key Operational Strategies for Planetary Exploration Using Unoccupied Aircraft Systems (UAS) (2002269)
Christopher W. Hamilton1, Brett B Carr1, Matthew Varnam2, Nathan Hadland1, Jahnavi Shah3, Joana Voigt4, Samantha Gwizd5, Kathryn Stack4, Fred J Calef III4, Raymond Francis6, Udit Basu7, Colin Chen8, Baldur Björnsson9, Elisa Dong3, Jeffrey Moersch7, Michael Phillips1, Joshua Springer9 and Catherine Neish10, (1)University of Arizona, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, Tucson, United States, (2)University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, (3)University of Western Ontario, London, Canada, (4)Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States, (5)NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, United States, (6)Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, (7)University of Tennessee, Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, Knoxville, United States, (8)Honeybee Robotics Pasadena, Pasadena, United States, (9)Reykjavik University, Reykjavik, Iceland, (10)University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
See more of: Planetary Sciences