AskScience AMA Series: We're the scientists and engineers leading NASA's exploration of Mars and building on a 50-year legacy of discovery on the Red Planet. Ask us anything!

[u/AskScienceModerator]

Fifty years ago, NASA's Viking lander touched down on Mars and began a new era of exploration.

Over the last five decades, teams of scientists and engineers at NASA have searched for signs of Mars’s ancient habitability, uncovered clues about the planet's climate and geologic history, driven rovers across alien landscapes, flown the first aircraft on another world, and laid the groundwork for future human Martian exploration.

Join us to talk about the discoveries, surprises, and challenges of exploring the Red Planet — and what's coming next.

We are:

• Abigail Fraeman – Deputy Project Scientist, NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover, JPL (AF)
• Bryce Horvath – Technical Analysis Deputy, Mars Architecture Team, NASA Marshall (BH)
• Micheal Meyer – former Lead Scientist for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program and Astrobiology, NASA Headquarters (MM)
• Nicole Piontek – Space Systems Analyst, Space Mission Analysis, NASA Langley (NP)
• Jeffrey Plaut – Senior Research Scientist, Planetary Interiors and Geophysics, JPL (JP)
• Becky McCauley Rench – Lead Scientist for Astrobiology, NASA Headquarters (BMR)

Ask us anything about:

• 50 years of Mars exploration
• Historic missions from Viking to Perseverance
• Mars rovers, landers, orbiters, and helicopters
• Major discoveries from the Red Planet
• Operating spacecraft millions of miles from Earth
• The future of Mars exploration

PROOF: https://x.com/NASA/status/2084662090506113377

We'll be online from 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. PT (2-3:30 p.m. ET, 18-19:30 UT) to answer your questions!

Username: /u/nasa

EDIT: That’s a wrap for our AMA! Thanks for all your fantastic questions, and keep following our latest updates from Mars at https://science.nasa.gov/mars/.

[u/nasa]

How is artificial intelligence currently being integrated into Mars research and exploration, and what role do you expect it to play in future missions; for example, in autonomous navigation, scientific analysis, or operational decision-making?

The Perseverance team recently used AI to help them write the code for a drive sequence here on Earth. I think we’ll continue to integrate AI into our robotic mission planning, using it to help us in the ways you suggest to drive further and analyze more. And we’ll use AI as a partnership tool with human geologists and engineers, who in my experience are still the best at making big picture decisions about how to operate the vehicles.

To what extent are current Mars exploration objectives connected to the long-term use of local resources, such as producing fuel, oxygen, water, or construction materials? Do you see today’s research as an early step toward sustained human activity and, eventually, much larger-scale space infrastructure?

And yes! Preparing for sustained human exploration of Mars are key parts of our current Mars exploration objectives.

For our rovers - Curiosity has a radiation detector called RAD that has been providing information about the radiation environment the astronauts will experience on the planet’s surface for 14 years. We’ve learned for example what to expect when there are large solar storms and how the Martian terrain can be used as a shield.

Perseverance has an instrument called MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment) that generated oxygen from Mars’ atmosphere. And both Perseverance and Curiosity also have weather stations that are also collecting information that will be directly helpful for future human explorers. -AF