Mars Sample Return Mission
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| Mars Sample Return Mission | |
 Mars Sample Return Mission |
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| Organization | NASA, ESA |
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| Mission type | orbiter, lander, rover and sample return |
| Launch date | proposed for 2010s |
| Launch vehicle | Ares V, EELV or Ariane 5 |
| Webpage | Mars Sample Return Lander Mission Profile |
A Mars Sample Return Mission would be a spaceflight mission to collect rock and dust samples from Mars and to return them to Earth for analysis. One particular proposal, a joint project between NASA and ESA, has been suggested for launch during the 2010s.[1]
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[edit] Proposed mission profile
The scenario of the joint NASA/ESA mission will depend on the date of launch and performance of the launcher. Before 2018, only launchers such as Ariane 5 and the US EELV are available, while after 2018, the Ares V should be available, allowing simpler mission scenarios.
The mission will consist of an orbiter, a lander, and possibly a rover. The orbiter is designed to deliver the lander/rover probe to Mars and return sample rocks back to Earth for analysis. The lander will feature an ascent component in order to deliver the samples to the orbiter (in case of launch with Ares V the orbiter part can be skipped in favor of a direct ascent scenario).
The rover's main objective is to collect a variety of rock samples using many instruments provided by scientists from NASA and ESA. If the rover is canceled, the lone lander would possibly have a robotic arm and/or hand to collect rock samples in replacement. But the lander could also have a proposed drilling machine to take samples from the Martian interior.
[edit] Scientific use
The return of Mars samples would be beneficial to science by allowing more extensive analysis to be undertaken of the samples than could be done by instruments painstakingly transferred to Mars. Also, the presence of the samples on Earth would allow scientific equipment to be used on stored samples, even years and decades after the sample return mission.[1]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b Mars Sample Return (from the NASA website. Accessed 2008-05-26.)
[edit] External links
- Mars Sample Return Lander Mission Profile by NASA's Solar System Exploration
- ESA Open to Mars Sample Return. ABC News (2007-09-27).
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