While this is an essential mission to prove there is water, once it is done, I still advocate conducting a “brute force” mission to the Moon as a test, then if successful on to Mars:
Instead of making incremental changes to the Mars rovers, to send more and more rovers to Mars to find much the same thing, the entire emphasis on the space program to both the Moon and Mars missions should concentrate at first, not on exploration, but on “infrastructure”, which in the long run will significantly increase the amount of exploration that can be done.
By this, I mean a mission to create a permanent foundation on both the Moon and Mars that, with every subsequent mission, will be improved upon.
Such a foundation should use large and powerful construction robots, probably built by Caterpillar, powered by a small nuclear reactor, to dig tunnels suitable for human use.
Horizontal rock tunnels with pressure doors would radically increase the amount of time all subsequent missions could be on the Moon or Mars. Instead of having to ship habitats with the astronauts back and forth every time, for brief stays, they can take far more oxygen, supplies, equipment, experiments, and everything else they need.
Rock tunnels would protect them from vacuum, cosmic and enhanced radiation, extremes of heat and cold, extremely abrasive dust, and also give them a LOT more space in which to work and live.
And using construction robots would save vast amounts of time, in that they could work continuously for years without there having to be humans present. The humans would just need to bring replacement parts for things like drill bits. And no need for the robots to stop working once humans have arrived or left again. They could just keep improving on the habitat.
Since such robots would be on a one way mission, even their landing craft could be cannibalized for things such as pressure doors, reinforcing rod and flooring. And once they had completed the basic tunnel, they could prospect for and mine water ice, both for water and to generate gas they could use to test the tunnel for pressure leaks. Finally, the robots could be reprogrammed and maybe retooled by the astronauts for new labors.
The short and long term advantages of doing it this way are profound, compared to endless repeats of two week long missions of the Apollo type, or endless variations of Mars rovers be-bopping around taking pictures of rocks.
The robot ships, being very large and heavy, would most likely be made in 100 ton modules, each of which could be sent into orbit on a heavy lift rocket, then assembled in orbit before going on their main mission.
Though the actual creation of this would involve lots of new design and invention, the concept itself could be done with the technologies we have already. All it really takes is to realize that with a big expenditure up front, it will save huge amounts of money and time later.
*ah* Someday!!
You’d think they would list the time of the launch.
1043 GMT (6:43 a.m. EDT)
T+plus 76 minutes, 30 seconds. The second stage has completed its second burn of this launch. In the next minute, tiny thrusters on the side of the rocket will be fired to spin up the vehicle in preparation for jettison of the second stage.