As Perseverance investigates the site of an ancient lake that existed billions of years ago, he is collecting rocks and soil. This material is of interest because it could contain evidence of past microscopic organisms that would reveal whether life once existed on Mars. Scientists will have the opportunity to use some of the most sophisticated instruments in the world to study these precious samples.
The ambitious Mars Sample Return program involves collaboration between the two agencies to recover 30 samples from the red planet. Multiple missions will be launched to Mars later this decade to collect and safely bring back the samples.
The program is nearing the end of its conceptual design phase, and NASA has completed its system requirements review. The review has resulted in changes that will reduce the complexity of future missions and increase the likelihood of success, according to NASA officials.
“The conceptual design phase is when all facets of a mission plan are put under a microscope,” Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said in a statement. “There are some significant and beneficial changes to the plan, which can be directly attributed to Perseverance’s recent successes at Jezero and the amazing performance of our Mars helicopter.”
Initially, the plan was to launch a research rover along with a sample recovery lander in the mid-2020s. Once released on the Martian surface, the research rover would have retrieved samples from where Perseverance has hidden them in the martian surface
Perseverance will now be the primary transport vehicle for bringing samples to the lander. The latest assessment of the rover’s health and life expectancy shows it should still be in prime condition to deliver samples in 2030. Perseverance will return to the lander and the lander’s robotic arm will transfer the samples .
The Sample Retrieval Lander will carry two sample retrieval helicopters, similar in style to the Ingenuity helicopter currently on Mars, instead of a retrieval rover.
“Recent operations of the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars, which has completed 29 flights, 24 more than originally planned, have shown us the utility of a potential Mars helicopter,” said Jeff Gramling, director of the Mars Return Program. sample of mars
Engineers have been impressed with Ingenuity’s performance. The helicopter has survived more than a year beyond its intended useful life. In the event that Perseverance is unable to return the samples to the lander, small helicopters will be able to fly away from the lander, use their arms to retrieve the samples and bring them back.
The two return helicopters in the sample will be similar in size to the Ingenuity, but will be slightly heavier. The landing legs will be equipped with small mobility wheels that allow them to travel on the ground and fly, and each helicopter will have a small arm that can hold sample tubes, said Richard Cook, manager of the Jet Propulsion Mars Sample Return program at the NASA. Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
If Perseverance’s health remains the same over the next eight years and it needs no help returning samples to the lander, helicopters could observe and capture images of the process.
Returning samples to Earth
The Sample Retrieval Lander is also carrying the Mars Ascent Vehicle – the first rocket to be launched from the Martian surface, with the samples safely attached inside. The spacecraft is currently scheduled to launch from Mars in 2031.
A separate mission will launch from Earth in the mid-2020s, called the Earth Return Orbiter, to rendezvous with the Mars Ascent Vehicle.
On board the Earth Return Orbiter is the Capture/Containment and Return System, which will collect the sample container from the Mars Ascent Vehicle while both vehicles are in orbit around Mars.
The Earth Return Orbiter will return to our world. Once the spacecraft is close to Earth, it will release the Earth Entry Vehicle containing the sample cache, and this spacecraft will land on Earth in 2033.
The agency previously said the samples could return to Earth in 2031, but planned launch dates for the orbiter in the fall of 2027 and the lander in the summer of 2028 have created the new date of ‘arrival.
Engineers are currently testing robotic components for the campaign at NASA and ESA facilities. The Mars Sample Return program will move into the preliminary design phase in October, which will last about a year. The design phase will result in technology development and engineering prototypes for major components.
“ESA is continuing full speed development on both the Earth Return Orbiter that will make the historic round trip from Earth to Mars and back; and the Sample Transfer Arm that will robotically place sample tubes in aboard the orbiting sample container prior to its launch from the Red Planet’s surface,” David Parker, ESA’s director of human and robotic exploration, said in a statement.
Various samples
The Perseverance rover has collected 11 rock core samples so far. The samples represent “an incredible array of materials,” said Meenakshi Wadhwa, Mars Sample Return principal scientist and director of Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Exploration.
“The last one, in fact, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock that has the greatest potential to preserve biosignatures, potentially, and so we already have a diversity of materials in the bag, so to speak, and really excited about the potential of bringing them back,” said Wadhwa.
“Working together on landmark efforts like Mars Sample Return not only provides invaluable data about our place in the universe, it brings us closer to ourselves right here on Earth,” Zurbuchen said.