1st Information Circular
35th MEPAG Meeting
September 25^th, 2017
Topical Virtual Meeting

Members of the Mars community,

I cordially invite you to participate in the 35^th meeting of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG), scheduled as a virtual meeting on Monday, September 25^th, 2017, 10:00am-1:00pm PDT.

Low-cost, “opportunistic” missions may provide a new way of advancing Mars science through observations within the Mars system.  This meeting will inform the Mars community about recent work in this area through reports on the mission concepts selected for study under NASA’s Planetary Science Deep Space SmallSat Studies (PSDS3) program (https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-selects-cubesat-smallsat-mission-concept-studies). We will hear from the 5 teams selected with Mars System proposals:

• Aeolus – to study the thermal and wind environment of Mars, PI Anthony Colaprete, NASA Ames Research Center
• MISEN: Mars Ion and Sputtering Escape Network, PI Robert Lillis, University of California Berkeley
• MAT: Mars Aerosol Tracker, PI Luca Montabone, Space Science Institute
• Chariot to the Moons of Mars, PI David Minton, Purdue University
• PRISM: Phobos Regolith Ion Sample Mission, PI Michael Collier, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Additionally, we will report on MEPAG’s involvement in the recent Low-Cost Planetary Missions Conference (http://www.lcpm12.org/).  There will also be a presentation from a NASA HQ representative on the status of discussions about future Mars mission architecture.

The current draft agenda is listed on the next page. The final agenda and connection information will be posted on the MEPAG meeting website (http://mepag.nasa.gov/meetings.cfm) a few days preceding the meeting.

The meeting is open to all members of the Mars science community including our international colleagues. I look forward to your participation.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jeffrey R. Johnson
MEPAG Chair

If you have a suggestion for the agenda or a question about the meeting, please email [email protected].