PROGRESS AND PLANS FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MARS ICE MAPPER MISSION

This talk will provide an overview of ongoing planning for the International Mars Ice Mapper (I-MIM) mission, which would detect the location, depth, spatial extent, and abundance of near-surface (top 0-10 meters) water ice, as well as determine the geotechnical characteristics of its overburden. Space agencies in Canada, Italy, Japan and the U.S. are collaborating to develop this mission concept, with potential contributions from the Netherlands. As an agencies-level initiative, I-MIM would be the first dedicated reconnaissance mission to Mars, with requirements designed to focus on “what we need to know before humans go,” while maximizing additional scientific returns to the greatest extent possible.

Finding locations on Mars with abundant, accessible, near-surface water ice as a potential natural resource is likely to drive the future landing site selection and characterization for the first human mission(s) to the surface. Access to water ice will be central to scientific investigations led by future human explorers on the surface, who may one day core, sample, and analyze the ice to understand the record of climate and geologic change on Mars, and could facilitate the search for life.

The mission concept includes a sun-synchronous, polar orbiter carrying a multimode, L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) / SAR Sounder and the possibility of additional high-altitude communications relay capabilities. Communications relay would support the high data volume from the SAR and provide high-bandwidth, high-data-rate communications orders of magnitude greater than current capabilities for all future Mars missions.

Exploring Martian ice reserves addresses key themes for the next decade of scientific exploration. Multilateral mission planners are exploring rideshare opportunities as part of their study. All science data from the mission would be made available to the international science community for both planetary science and reconnaissance.

A Measurement Definition Team (MDT), with members of the international science community, is helping the agency partners refine the mission concept.

We will focus on the status of the current multilateral concept study for the mission, knowledge gaps I-MIM could fill, and progress of the MDT.