The Monarch System

Mission Statement

The mission of the Monarch System is to provide a continuous, reliable communication link from Earth to a low-power ground communication system anywhere on the portion of the Martian surface that does not have line-of-sight communication with Earth. The Monarch System will provide functionality that will not be compromised in the case of single-point failures.

Background

The human endeavor to explore Mars has been in progress for decades. The first artificially made object reached the Martian surface in 1971. Since then, a number of robotic missions have successfully operated on the Martian surface, and many others have found homes in orbit around the Red Planet.

Despite the increasing complexity and capability of landers and rovers, NASA maintains its dedication to send people to Mars. The expectation of an eventual human mission to Mars has become a hallmark of the public vision of space exploration. Sending people to Mars has proven to be a much more challenging undertaking than sending humans to the moon; nevertheless, NASA plans to land humans on Mars in the early 2030s (though precisely when is still a matter of contention). Numerous ideas have been proposed by a multitude of organizations about how future Mars missions may be accomplished; NASA, however, has chosen a strikingly Apollo-like architecture. The preliminary mission architecture is also extremely similar to that portrayed in the popular novel The Martian by Andy Weir. First, humans would depart Earth orbit on an Orion capsule and travel to the lunar Gateway, a station orbiting the moon. From there they would board the Deep Space Transport, which would ferry the astronauts to Mars orbit. The astronauts would spend 438 days at Mars before returning to the Gateway and then back to Earth.

The Apollo Program and the International Space Station operations have demonstrated the indispensability of constant telemetry data being provided to Mission Control. All of the Apollo missions had problems in flight, and Mission Control’s quick actions prevented disaster on several occasions. One of the new challenges with Mars missions is the signal delay, which varies between three and twenty-one minutes. Therefore, Mars missions will likely need to be more self-reliant than Apollo or ISS missions. However, a constant feed of telemetry will still probably remain a critical safety component of Mars missions. One of the challenges associated with obtaining this telemetry data, however, will maintain communication during the portion of the Martian solar day when the surface base does not face Earth. In other words, if the base isn’t pointed at Earth, it can’t talk to Earth because Mars is in the way.

Recently, the burgeoning smallsat revolution found allies even in Mars orbit – in the two 6U cubesats sent as an accompaniment to the InSight mission. These cubesats, called the MarCO mission, demonstrated that small satellites have the capability to communicate from Mars to Earth. Furthermore, the MarCO mission suggested that series of small spacecraft may contribute in unexpected ways to larger Mars missions.