We've got rovers like Curiosity and Opportunity still rolling around the Martian surface, and we've got orbiters like MAVEN and India's first Mars probe, Mangalyaan 1, in orbit. But as we close out Mars Week, here are the next explorers coming soon to the Red Planet.
Next up
In 2016, the first suite of ESA's ExoMars probes will head toward Mars. The Trace Gas Orbiter will map wells of methane across the planet, searching for its origin (whether biological or geological.) The Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator Module will, just as it sounds, test new landing technology. It will also spend four days in the middle of intense dust storms characterizing Martian winds before shutting down.
In 2018, the second leg will launch. This will be a big deal for Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, which will have to prove that it can make a successful Mars launch vehicle and lander after a number of false starts and outright catastrophes for Russian Mars probes. The lander will serve two functions: as a longterm meteorological station, and as the protective shell for the ExoMars rover, which will drill into the Martian soil in hunt of signs of life. It will mostly hunt in equatorial regions.
In 2016, NASA will launch a small lander to Mars. InSight is a Discovery-class mission—those meant to perform "science on a budget." After landing, the probe will drill into the soil of Mars and begin taking seismic measurements, hunting for signs of current geological activity. Two small companion CubeSat orbiters will serve as a communications relay between the craft and Earth, as well as a demonstration of CubeSats in deep space.
In 2020, NASA will launch a true successor to Curiosity: the Mars 2020 rover. Using Curiosity as a platform, 2020 will add on a new set of capabilities. It will be able to perform x-ray spetrometry, radar imaging, and weather sensing. The rover will carry an improved camera for hunting biosignatures, a zooming stereo camera, and a UV camera. The probe also will have a module called MOXIE, whose job will be to attempt to extract breathable oxygen out of the Mars environment to see if astronauts could do it someday. It may also include a helicopter to do air recon ahead of the rover vehicle.
India will follow up the highly successful Mangalayaan 1 mission with the Mangalayaan 2 sometime in 2018. Few payload details are known at this time, though there are hints that the Indian Space Research Organisation may attempt a lander or rover.
Finally, in 2020, the United Arab Emirates wants to launch the Mars Hope mission. It will be the first Mars mission for the UAE. The probe will characterize the atmosphere of Mars, as well as search for areas of water ice on the ground below. Some team members from NASA's MAVEN mission will collaborate with the UAE team.
The maybes
A handful of missions could make the jump from proposals to real plans in the coming decade. For instance, South Korea is working on a moon mission as it tries to expand its space program, and a Mars concept may arise too. In addition, a Chinese Mars mission is waiting for approval for a 2020 launch. JAXA, Japan's space agency, wants to return a sample from Phobos or Deimos sometime in the 2020s.
NASA is also exploring a number of options, including a new communications orbiter to replace MRO and Odyssey—which, by the targeted 2022 launch date, will be 21 and 16 years old respectively. The last rounds of Discovery proposals included three Phobos / Deimos proposals and an astrobiology mission called Icebreaker. JPL is also developing a sample return mission. Dozens of other ideas are also hiding somewhere in the nooks and crannies of NASA, waiting for further development or outright approval.
NASA's big goal, landing humans on Mars, is currently on the timeline for the 2030s. It'll take a lot of robots between now and then, though, if the agency is really going to pull it off.
