This illustration shows the concept of a NASA Mars elevation vehicle sampled in orbit around Mars.
NASA / JPL-Caltech
Sending a spacecraft to Mars is one thing. It’s another to land on the surface, pick up some pieces of the planet and then bring them all the way back to Earth. But NASA will try to do the same.
On Tuesday, NASA announced the results of an evaluation by the Independent Review Board (IRB) of its planned Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, which will eventually bring back a small portion of the red planet for our scientists to study.
In a statement on Tuesday, NASA said that after examining the agency’s ambitious Mars sampling plan, the board’s report concludes that NASA is ready for the mission in light of decades of scientific progress and technological advances in Mars exploration.
The IRB issued a wide range of recommendations, such as the establishment of an office fee that would work more easily with NASA and its partner in the mission, the European Space Agency (ESA). It also called for an independent assessment of hardware and resources and a new look at the budget, which is expected to reach 4 4 billion for the initial phases of the campaign.
NASA already has a major part of the larger mission in place. This Firm rover Departing for Mars with a fixed arrival on February 2021. The rover is equipped with a series of sample tubes that will later be used by MSR to collect rocks and soil.
The plan calls for larger components, including ESA’s “Fench” rover, which will collect the remaining sample tubes by Perseverance and take them to a NASA-built Mars rover that will orbit them around Mars. The ESA Earth Returnbiter can reach the orbit of Mars with that vehicle to bring the samples back to us.
If it sounds complicated, that’s it. That’s one of the reasons NASA launched an “early independent review of any NASA science mission directorate large strategic mission.”
NASA and ESA expect the next phases of the MSR to begin in the mid-2020s. If all goes well, we will have the ancient pieces of Mars delivered to Earth in the 2030s.
“Ultimately, I believe the return of this sample would justify efforts and help answer key astrobiology questions about the red planet – which brings us one step closer to our ultimate goal of sending humans to Mars,” said Thomas Zarbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for science. ”
