Firouz Naderi, Mars Program Manager Image Credit: NASA/JPL Link to Full Res

Peer through the glass door of Firouz Naderi's office any day of the week, and you'll often find a cluster of scientists and engineers pouring over plans for future Mars exploration. With reading glasses at the ready for moments of intensive study, Naderi is known for his eagle eye and draftsman's attention to detail. His job, as the head of the Mars Program at JPL, is to lead a team of people in creating the blueprints for two decades worth of missions to the red planet, a task he likens to architecture.

"When I was young, I wanted to be an architect," he says, with a soft hint of a Persian accent retained from his childhood in Iran. "That dream isn't really at odds with where I ended up, since both architecture and engineering involve a creative process. Engineers are often stereotyped as 'nuts and bolts' people, but they also need to have an eye for grand design."

This combination of engineering capability and forward-looking vision is vital to Mars exploration, which has the ambitious task of answering three compelling questions: Was Mars ever a habitat for life? Is it today? And could it ever be a habitat for humans who might choose to venture there someday?

Program planning in the midst of artistic inspiration Firouz Naderi, Jim Cutts, Jerry Hattox, and Sylvia Miller, all of the Mars Program Office, discuss strategies in a process Naderi calls "an enriching give and take." Naderi's taste for abstract art and the memory of the country where he was born motivated a purchase from an Iranian artist for daily inspiration. Image credit: NASA/JPL Link to Full Res

"I love the collaborative part of planning, because there's an enriching process of give and take," Naderi says, lighting up with an internal enthusiasm he ordinarily keeps in check during the business day. "Here I am, an engineer thrust in a world where I need to understand a little bit about chemistry, geology, biology, astrophysics, and more, none of which I studied in college. It's like being a dry sponge on a wet countertop--I get to be a perpetual learner, working with some really smart people who specialize intensively. The real gift is that I can then reinvest what I learn into the design of plans that carry us to Mars."

Following the Water through Orbital Data Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey circle Mars over 20 times a day, collecting images and data, like that above. A continuous presence at Mars allows us to identify more areas that may have been potential watery habitats, as well as plan safe locations to land (the oval at center represent's the Opportunity rover's landing site ellipse). The false colors indicate a region rich in hematite, a mineral that often forms in the presence of water. Image credit: NASA/JPL Link to Full Res

Sculpting a Continuous Presence at Mars

The trick to creating a strong program from scratch, says Naderi, is to stay focused. To find out Mars' potential as a habitat for life, today's mission planners have devised a central theme: follow the water. Water is necessary to life as we know it. So, from workshops and laboratories across the country, engineers are busy machining spacecraft that can explore past or present martian environments where life might have gained a foothold in the presence of water.

But how is a sequence of Mars missions designed with such a broad guideline as "follow the water"? In addressing complex topics, Naderi is well-known for coming up with analogies on the spot. "When I think about architecting a large program of missions, I think of Michelangelo," Naderi muses, as he leans back in his chair. "He looked at a hunk of marble and saw a statue trapped inside and chiseled away until it was set free. That's what we do too: craft missions out of a single, concrete notion."

Meanwhile on Mars, the search has already begun. Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey collectively circle the planet over 20 times a day, and Spirit and Opportunity continue to explore two regions that might have had a long water history. With their improved "scientific toolkits," longer durability, and greater mobility, they are symbols of a rapidly approaching era in space exploration: a continuous presence at Mars.

Building a Future of Continuous Mars Exploration

So, what's on the way? Currently planned is a string of ever more sophisticated orbiters, landers, and rovers, along with some "wild card" missions that, as an avid card player, Naderi particularly appreciates as a strategy. "We have to design a program that's flexible enough to take advantage of unexpected discoveries dealt to us along the way. It's dangerous to lock in too tightly, too soon. We may know the peak of what we want to learn, but we're only on the ground floor and just beginning to map a way to get to the top."

Architectural Inspiration for Exploration Artist's concept of the link between innovation, old and new. In crafting a robust Mars Exploration Program, Naderi finds inspiration in renaissance architectural feats such as Brunelleschi's dome in Florence, which was ultimately used as a giant sundial helping navigation on Earth, opening up exploration around the globe. Naderi hopes today's missions leave the same kind of inspirational legacy to the future as the dome has given to us. Image credit: NASA/JPL Link to Full Res

"He was ingenious, creating not only the overarching designs, but also all of the new technologies to make it possible. For countless years, no one knew how to span such a large space without the whole thing crashing down, but brick by brick, layer by layer, he and his workers did it," Naderi explains. "Each layer not only bears its own weight, but also that of the next, and the whole thing physically pulls together into one impressive whole. We design our Mars missions to do just that: contribute their own unique discoveries and technologies and yet provide a solid foundation for future missions to rely upon. Ultimately, our missions also pull together to serve one common purpose: the search for life and our own human potential on Mars."

New Telecommunications Capabilities With a modern "astronomical dome" not wholly unlike Brunelleschi's arising metaphorically from Earth to receive libraries of data from Mars, this artist's concept of Mars Telecom Orbiter depicts the growing link between Earth and Mars and the knowledge legacy it will leave to the future. Image credit: NASA/JPL Link to Full Res

A Support Structure of Missions that Make Exploration Possible

Naderi also speaks of power systems, mechanical advances, and software development as easily as he does of art, history, and architecture. Orbiters that fly above the red planet, he explains, provide eagle eyes for analyzing Mars as a habitat, because they provide global studies of the planet. With their powerful communications antennas, they also receive rover and lander information, sending whole libraries of data back to earth. Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey, for instance, are currently responsible for sending back almost all of the data returned from the Spirit and Opportunity rovers.

The chain of orbiters will continue with the 2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which will increase tenfold the number of spots on Mars surveyed close-up and pave the way for the 2009 Mars Telecommunications Orbiter. This special orbiter will become the first dedicated planetary telesat whose orbit is selected to optimize its relay functions as opposed to science observations. Eventually, these and other powerful orbiters will form the backbone of an "interplanetary internet," capable of sending back unprecedented amounts of data at all hours of the day and night.

	Future Rover Exploring Martian Canyons Artist's concept of one in a long chain of future rovers that would be able to go distances and explore martian terrain unlike we've ever seen to date, either studying the terrain as it goes or collecting samples for later return to Earth for laboratory analysis. Image credit: NASA/JPL Link to Full Res

Also not to be forgotten is the first "wildcard" Mars Scout mission named Phoenix, scheduled to launch in 2007. It is set to make a daring descent toward the martian north pole, where there is an abundance of water ice, but uncertain, frozen terrain. As with its sister Scout missions, two of which will launch in 2011, interested researchers from around the world join forces in these missions to propose inspired scientific and technological missions that enrich the program far beyond its current bounds.

Mars Program Planning Sylvia Miller, Firouz Naderi, Jim Cutts, and Jerry Hattox have an animated, "blue sky" discussion about future options for Mars technologies that will enable the "road less traveled": the search for life on Mars. Image credit: NASA/JPL Link to Full Res

"We need to understand better the signatures and chemistry of life in all its forms. That will help us design instruments to detect life, but we also have to make sure we aren't too earth-centric in our conceptions. After all, maybe life on Mars doesn't act like life on Earth." And, Naderi concedes with an understated accuracy, that's tough to figure out.

But, the challenges don't deter him in the slightest. Switching back to the more allegorical side of his nature, Naderi references an oft-quoted Frost passage about the value of the road less traveled. He has hung it as "word art" in the hall on the way to his office, as an inspiration to fellow Mars planners. "We need to think beyond our current capabilities if we are to design and land large payloads like a rover that will return samples of the martian surface back to earth for analysis, not to mention setting down a robotic infrastructure for eventual human visitation."

	Possible Human Exploration on Mars Artist's concept of a Mars astronaut examining the surface. Despite the enormous challenges of human exploration, Naderi can't help thinking of the huge technological strides made in the last 100 years and believes we have the capabilities to develop enabling technologies far beyond what we can now only imagine. Image credit: NASA/JPL Link to Full Res

Building a Bridge to Human Mars Missions

As missions of the next decade build knowledge of possible habitats on Mars, is it really conceivable that humans could survive the much harsher martian environment someday? Naderi is quick to nod. "Look back 100 years ago. We didn't have an airplane. From then to the landing on the moon, it only took about 60 years. Given the pace of technology, even the most audacious visionaries of today cannot predict what is achievable by humans in 200 years."

However, he acknowledges, the road is filled with challenges, including the creation of larger, differently shaped spacecraft that could carry humans safely through the martian atmosphere. Landing requires a whole different approach that essentially would give astronauts more "air time" as they land.

As Naderi notes with amazement and a sympathetic smile, "Rovers have nerves of steel coming in through the martian atmosphere at 12,000 miles an hour and slowing down to 0 in only six minutes. People are a whole different matter. Just think of the way you felt on your last turbulent airplane descent and landing, and magnify it 1,000 times or more!"

Living in the Harsh Environment on Mars Artist's concept of human explorers on Mars, trekking over the dusty martian landscape on expeditions beyond their outpost. Robotic exploration today paves the way for even more ambitious human exploration on the red planet someday in the future. Image credit: NASA Link to Full Res

Future Mars missions supporting human exploration will likely include robotic outposts and missions designed to install an infrastructure desperately needed for human survival. To date, Mars Odyssey has only begun initial studies of the martian radiation environment, and Mars Science Laboratory won't explore toxicity until it lands in 2010, but it's a beginning.

	Mars Sample Return Landing Artist's concept of a Mars Sample Return mission landing on the red planet. Naderi believes that challenging missions like this one, in which many people with different backgrounds come together to make it possible, reflect a common human quest to explore our destiny in a new world. Image credit: NASA/JPL Link to Full Res

Following a Legacy of Innovation to a Future of Discovery

In fact, reaching all of the ambitious Mars Exploration goals may sound like an insurmountable challenge, but Naderi returns to his focus on step-by-step progression and perseverance at all stages. It is perhaps a strength gained through his own history of leaving his birth country, coming to the United States for college, and then staying for his life work, a career he never imagined for himself as a child.

As the rovers set records today for distance traveled over uncharted terrain on another planet, Naderi reflects his own neo-renaissance hopes for Mars exploration: an endeavor in which talented people from all nations, with all kinds of expertise, over tens or even hundreds of years, all come together in a great quest to explore a world beyond our own.

Naderi reviews Opportunity image Studying the mineral signs of a past shallow lake on Mars discovered by the Opportunity rover, Naderi links the new findings of today to a rich history and future of discovery on Mars. Image credit: NASA/JPL Link to Full Res

A constant contrast in classical and contemporary leanings, Naderi can't help reflecting on a long human history of exploration and technological innovation:

"We are continuing a very human tradition, whether it was Marco Polo to China or Columbus to the new world, where Mars is the new world for our age. What we are doing is what humans have done during all epochs. We are going to find our destiny, in our new world. And that's what we'll be remembered for."