Multi-Scout Lander Science Investigation

This image is one of a series of nine showing the entire Multi-Scout mission. But only this one was released publicly. It shows a lander on the floor of Holden Crater, which scientists speculate contained an ancient lake in the past. The mission concept involves sending as many as 10 small landers like this one, all deployed from a single orbiter. The landers would essentially scout out a large number of locations. This idea was in part a response to the loss of the Mars Polar Lander because scientists and engineers realized that very little was known about the actual surface conditions at MPL's landing site. These little scout landers wouldn't carry much in the way of instruments, perhaps just an infrared spectrometer but their stereo cameras could reveal any hazards that are undetectable from orbit.

The 2005 MRO mission's high-resolution camera, HiRise, evolved as another response to this lack of detailed surface knowledge. We now rely on MRO to do the scouting of landing sites.

There may yet be a network of small landers, though, perhaps around 2018. Their purpose would be to conduct specific network science