Methane mapping to point safe landing point on Mars

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India’s orbiter to Mars and Nasa’s Curiosity rover are as different as chalk and cheese in design, but they could point at the best landing spot for man on the red planet.

For, the respective scientific data beamed by these two missions on the Martian atmosphere and soil could complement each other to steer future expeditions — human or robots — to touch down at the perfect location.
Perhaps, the source of methane and its position in Mars — a question which space scientists of the United States and India are grappling with — could help locate the ideal landing site, says Dr Anita Sengupta, of Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and a member of the Curiosity team.
Dr Anita Sengupta, who interacted with scientists at Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) during her visit to Bengaluru, told this newspaper that she discussed about the orbiter scheduled for launch in October-November and its methane mapping gadget.
“It is pretty exciting as methane can be produced either because of volcanic activity or biological activity. Either way, it will be an exciting find. If there is a strong source (of methane) down there, one might want to land there or land a robotic mission. These measurements (of methane) will also help us better understand the evolution of Mars, whether there was habitation in the past, and whether habitation is possible in future,” Dr Anita Sengupta said.
“After having spoken to atmospheric scientists who make measurements, I believe remote sensing observations (planned by ISRO) give better signals about how much methane is there in the atmosphere than making measurements on the surface. It is really an important measurement to make. Curiosity has been looking at atmospheric constituents and organic substances, which is different from looking through the atmosphere with the help of methane mapping instrument,” she added.
During the first year of exploration of Mars, she said Curiosity had spotted an ancient water flowing area close to its landing site, indicating that water flowed and was not stagnant on the Red Planet.
While some data on organic composition of the planet are likely to be released soon, the rover is making its way to the base of Mount Sharp, where it will investigate lower layers of a mountain that rises three miles from the floor of the crater.
Dr Anita Sengupta, who developed the entry and descent landing (EDL) system for Curiosity which enabled the rover to touch down on the Red Planet after travelling through Martian atmosphere at supersonic speed, said she was ecstatic when it landed without a hitch on August 5, 2012.
“I was pretty confident that it will work as we had done a lot of work. I think I was more excited than nervous,” she said.