Global Aerospace contributed to the success of the Mars Exploration Rover Project by providing critical mission launch approval support. Because the MER mission carries radioactive heating units (RHUs) made of small plutonium pellets and because plutonium is highly toxic to life, considerable analysis and simulation was required by NASA for every launch date and time considered.

Global Aerospace personnel, in support of JPL, developed and ran models to define blast, projectile and thermal environments in order to assess possible launch vehicle and/or upper stage explosions and the potential for the release of plutonium into the environment. In addition, Global Aerospace personnel carried out analysis and simulation of a broad spectrum of launch vehicle and upper stage failures in order to determine the possible flight path for debris related to explosions or break up of MER vehicles, including the RHUs, as they entered the atmosphere. This break up analysis requires a detailed understanding of spacecraft and launch vehicle materials, their response to thermal environments and hypersonic aero-thermodynamics. Finally, GAC carried out an analysis of the breakup and the temperatures reached by the components of the MER cruise stage which also entered Mars. This analysis is required to provide data for the MER planetary quarantine analysis.