NASA Adds Helicopters to Mars Sample Return Mission
NASA Mission Update
NASA has finished the system requirements review for its Mars Sample Return Program, which is nearing completion of the conceptual design phase. During this phase, the program team evaluated and refined the architecture to return the scientifically selected samples, which are currently in the collection process by NASA’s Perseverance rover in the Red Planet’s Jezero Crater.
The architecture for the campaign, which includes contributions from the European Space Agency (ESA), is expected to reduce the complexity of future missions and increase probability of success.
“The conceptual design phase is when every facet of a mission plan gets put under a microscope,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “There are some significant and advantageous changes to the plan, which can be directly attributed to Perseverance’s recent successes at Jezero and the amazing performance of our Mars helicopter.”
This advanced mission architecture takes into consideration a recently updated analysis of Perseverance’s expected longevity. Perseverance will be the primary means of transporting samples to NASA’s Sample Retrieval Lander carrying the Mars Ascent Vehicle and ESA’s Sample Transfer Arm.
As such, the Mars Sample Return campaign will no longer include the Sample Fetch Rover or its associated second lander. The Sample Retrieval Lander will include two sample recovery helicopters, based on the design of the Ingenuity helicopter, which has performed 29 flights at Mars and survived over a year beyond its original planned lifetime. The helicopters will provide a secondary capability to retrieve samples cached on the surface of Mars.
The ESA Earth Return Orbiter and its NASA-provided Capture, Containment, and Return System remain vital elements of the program architecture.
With planned launch dates for the Earth Return Orbiter and Sample Retrieval Lander in fall 2027 and summer 2028, respectively, the samples are expected to arrive on Earth in 2033.
With its architecture solidified during this conceptual design phase, the program is expected to move into its preliminary design phase this October. In this phase, expected to last about 12 months, the program will complete technology development and create engineering prototypes of the major mission components.
This refined concept for the Mars Sample Return campaign was presented to the delegates from the 22 participating states of Europe’s space exploration program, Terrae Novae, in May. At their next meeting in September, the states will consider the discontinuation of the development of the Sample Fetch Rover.
“ESA is continuing at full speed the development of both the Earth Return Orbiter that will make the historic round-trip from Earth to Mars and back again; and the Sample Transfer Arm that will robotically place the sample tubes aboard the Orbiting Sample Container before its launch from the surface of the Red Planet,” said David Parker, ESA director of Human and Robotic Exploration.
The respective contributions to the campaign are contingent upon available funding from the U.S. and ESA participating states. More formalized agreements between the two agencies will be established in the next year.
“Working together on historic endeavors like Mars Sample Return not only provides invaluable data about our place in the universe but brings us closer together right here on Earth,” said Zurbuchen.
The first step in the Mars Sample Return Campaign is already in progress. Since it landed at Jezero Crater Feb. 18, 2021, the Perseverance rover has collected 11 scientifically-compelling rock core samples and one atmospheric sample.
Bringing Mars samples to Earth would allow scientists across the world to examine the specimens using sophisticated instruments too large and too complex to send to Mars and would enable future generations to study them. Curating the samples on Earth would also allow the science community to test new theories and models as they are developed, much as the Apollo samples returned from the Moon have done for decades. This strategic NASA and ESA partnership will fulfill a solar system exploration goal, a high priority since the 1970s and in the last three National Academy of Sciences Planetary Science Decadal Surveys.
Learn more about the Mars Sample Return Program:
21 responses to “NASA Adds Helicopters to Mars Sample Return Mission”
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If they’re reducing the hardware, design, and launch resources that much, could they move the schedule up a couple years?
Theoretically, they should, having ditched the cost of the Sample Retrieval Lander.
In practice, I doubt it
They don’t really have a choice in moving up the schedule. There is always the looming shadow of a certain commercial company doing the sample fetching for them as a sideshow with the previous plan of record for Mars sample return. However NASA and ESA have not kept the program timeline on schedule much.
the Chinese
Them too. But they ain’t a commercial company. Of course they will be happy to return the samples back to NASA in a very public and televised ceremony with worldwide coverage, maybe even for free.
there is no commercial company that is showing any interest in the cost of a smaple return from Mars. the Chinese might be interested in doing it as their lunar landing
Irrelevant as NASA’s office of Planetary Protection is unlikely to approve the FAA licensing of such a mission anyway. Plus the Space Resource Act bans the private ownership of biological material from Celestial Bodies so if their was any sample of Mars life the government would just seize it.
These are two of the reasons Mars is just not a suitable place for private enterprise despite what Elon Musk dreams of. If he is allowed to go to Mars it will be under the NASA banner.
By the time SpaceX sends people to Mars, NASA will not be in a position to be issuing imperious commands to anyone – not that it really is even now.
SpaceX will bring back samples from Mars, though that will hardly be its main motivation for going there in the first place.
sure and pigs will fly. spaceX is no where close to getting to mars
Dead nation-states don’t go to Mars or put on TV extravaganzas.
By the time all of this sample return stuff is supposed to take place, the PRC will almost certainly be gone. Or at least so diminished as to be no factor where Mars is concerned.
as I said its possible but unlikely. we are headed for a bipolar world
it would be very hard, but they have nearly unlimited time unless the chinese try it
The PRC would have to be around to try it. The further out the timeline, the less likely that gets.
well anything is possible. the worlds great powers are all three going through a period of immense internal stress . Facism is alive in this country…but we will survive it and its hard for me to see the PRC going under. Russia yes. but the PRC no. there is probably a confrontation in our future, lets see how it works out
Not sure ditching the fetch rover is a sound decision.
Clarification of my reasoning: we know rovers work. We’ve used many of them on Mars. To date we have experience with exactly *one* Martian helicopter. One. I’m not convinced the extrapolation will work out.
To be fair, they are putting two drones on it, so there’s some redundancy.
What I’m curious about is what the landing ellipse projections are looking like, and whether they’ll indeed actually get within range of Percy.
It puts a really high life expectancy bar on our rover
Yes. But the fetch rover wouldn’t be nuclear-powered. Percy is. Plus, we know Curiosity is still alive after nine years on the surface and that Percy is an improved design with tougher wheels. So, if the sample return rocket winds up coming down off-course, Percy can likely get to it at the expense of more time. If the fetch rover came down similarly off-course, it couldn’t necessarily get to Percy, then the sample return rocket on its own. In this case, Elon is right – the best part is no part.
Not sure changing from the origional mission plan of Perseverence carrying the samples and adding the complexity of a second rover to complete the mission Perseverence was capable of doing solo in the first place was a good idea, either.