NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return

The NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return (MSR) is a proposed Mars sample return mission to collect Martian rock and soil samples in 43 small, cylindrical, pencil-sized, titanium tubes and return them to Earth around 2033.

The NASA-ESA plan, approved in September 2022, is to return samples using three missions: a sample collection mission (''Perseverance''), a sample retrieval mission (Sample Retrieval Lander + Mars Ascent Vehicle + Sample Transfer Arm + 2 ''Ingenuity''-class helicopters), and a return mission (Earth Return Orbiter). The mission hopes to resolve the question of whether Mars once harbored life.

Although this NASA and ESA's proposal is still in the design stage as of December 2022, the first leg of gathering samples is currently being executed by the ''Perseverance'' rover.

History

In the summer of 2001, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) requested mission concepts and proposals from industry-led teams (Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and TRW). The science requirements included at least of samples, rover mobility to obtain samples at least from the landing spot, and drilling to obtain one sample from a depth of . That following winter, JPL made similar requests of certain university aerospace engineering departments (MIT and the University of Michigan).

Also in 2001, a separate set of industry studies was done for the Mars ascent vehicle (MAV) due to the uniqueness and key role of the MAV for MSR. Figure 11 in this reference summarized the need for MAV flight testing at a high altitude over Earth, based on Lockheed Martin's analysis that the risk of mission failure is "extremely high" if launch vehicle components are only tested separately.

In 2003, JPL reported that the mission concepts from 2001 had been deemed too costly, which led to the study of a more affordable plan accepted by two groups of scientists, a new MSR Science Steering Group and the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG). Instead of a rover and deep drilling, a scoop on the lander would dig deep and place multiple samples together into one container. After five years of technology development, the MAV would be flight-tested twice above Earth before the mission PDR (Preliminary Design Review) in 2009.

Based on the simplified mission plan, assuming a launch from Earth in 2013 and two weeks on Mars for a 2016 return, technology development was initiated for ensuring with high reliability that potential Mars microbes would not contaminate Earth, and also that the Mars samples would not be contaminated with Earth-origin biological materials. The sample container would be clean on the outside before departing from Mars, with installation onto the MAV inside an "Earth-clean MAV garage."

In 2004, JPL published an update on the 2003 plan. MSR would use the new large skycrane landing system in development for the Mars Science Laboratory rover (later named Curiosity). A MSR Technology Board was formed, and it was noted that the use of a rover might return to the MSR plan, in light of success with the Spirit and Opportunity rovers that arrived early in 2004. A ascent rocket would carry of samples inside a payload, the Orbiting Sample (OS). The MAV would transmit enough telemetry to reconstruct events in case of failure on the way up to Mars orbit.

As of 2005, a rover had returned to the MSR plan, with a rock core drill in light of results from the Mars Exploration Rover discoveries. Focused technology development would start before the end of 2005 for mission PDR in 2009, followed by launch from Earth in 2013. Related technologies in development included potential advances for Mars arrival (navigation and descent propulsion) and implementing pump-fed liquid launch vehicle technology on a scale small enough for a MAV.

In late 2005, a peer-reviewed analysis showed that ascent trajectories to Mars orbit would differ depending on liquid versus solid propulsion, largely because small solid rocket motors burn faster, requiring a steeper ascent path to avoid excess atmospheric drag, while slower burning liquid propulsion might take advantage of more efficient paths to orbit.

Early in 2006, the Marshall Space Flight Center noted the possibility that a science rover would cache the samples on Mars, then subsequently a mini-rover would be sent along with the MAV on a sample return lander, in which case either the mini-rover or the science rover would deliver the samples to the lander for loading onto the MAV. A two-stage solid propellant MAV would be gas ejected from a launch tube with its payload, a diameter spherical package containing the samples. The second stage would send telemetry and its steering thrusters would use hydrazine fuel with additives. The authors expected the MAV to need multiple flight tests at a high altitude over Earth.

A peer-reviewed publication in 2007 described testing of autonomous sample capture for Mars orbit rendezvous. Free-floating tests were done onboard a NASA aircraft using a parabolic "zero-g" flight path.

In 2007 Alan Stern, then NASA's Associate Administrator for Science, was strongly in favor of completing MSR sooner, and he asked JPL to include sample caching on the Mars Science Laboratory mission (later named Curiosity). A team at the Ames Research Center was designing a hockey puck-sized sample-caching device to be installed as an extra payload on MSL.

A review analysis in 2008 compared Mars ascent to lunar ascent, noting that the MAV would be not only technically daunting, but also a cultural challenge for the planetary community, given that lunar ascent has been done using known technology, and that science missions typically rely on proven propulsion for course corrections and orbit insertion maneuvers, similar to what Earth satellites do routinely.

Early in 2009, the In-Space Propulsion Technology project office at the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) presented a ranking of six MAV options, concluding that a two-stage solid rocket with continuous telemetry would be best for delivering a sample package to Mars orbit. A single-stage pump-fed bipropellant MAV was noted to be less heavy and was ranked second.

Later in 2009, the Chief Technologist of the Mars Exploration Directorate at JPL referred to a 2008 workshop on MSR technologies at the Lunar and Planetary Institute, and wrote that particularly difficult technology challenges included the MAV, sample acquisition and handling, and back planetary protection, then further commented that "The MAV, in particular, stands out as the system with highest development risk, pointing to the need for an early start" leading to flight testing before preliminary design review (PDR) of the lander that would deliver the MAV.

In October 2009, NASA and ESA established the Mars Exploration Joint Initiative to proceed with the ExoMars program, whose ultimate aim is "the return of samples from Mars in the 2020s". ExoMars's first mission was planned to launch in 2018 Mars Sample-Return
NASA Accessed 2008-05-26 with unspecified missions to return samples in the 2020–2022 time frame. The cancellation of the caching rover MAX-C in 2011, and later NASA withdrawal from ExoMars, due to budget limitations, ended the mission. The pull-out was described as "traumatic" for the science community.

In 2010-2011, the NASA In-Space Propulsion Technology (ISPT) program at the Glenn Research Center received proposals and funded industry partners for MAV design studies with contract options to begin technology development, while also considering propulsion needs for Earth return spacecraft. Separately, the ISPT team studied scenarios for MAV flight testing over Earth and recommended two flight tests prior to MSR mission PDR, considering the historical low probability of initial success for new launch vehicles. The NASA-ESA potential mission schedule anticipated launches in 2018, 2022 and 2024 to send respectively a sample caching rover, a sample return orbiter and a sample retrieval lander for a 2027 Earth arrival, with MAV development starting in 2014 after two years of technology development identified by the MAV design studies. “Mars Sample Return Campaign Status,” E. Nilsen, C. Whetsel, R. Mattingly, and L. May, 2012 IEEE Aerospace Conference, Paper number 1627, March 2012. The ISPT program summarized a year of propulsion technology progress for improving Mars arrival, Mars ascent, and Earth return, stating that the first flight test of a MAV engineering model would need to occur in 2018 to meet the 2024 launch date for the sample retrieval lander.

The 2010-2011 MAV design studies were done by Lockheed-Martin teamed with ATK; Northrop-Grumman; and Firestar Technologies, to deliver a 5-kg (11-lb), 16-cm (6.3-inch) diameter sample sphere to Mars orbit.“Mars Ascent Vehicle Development Status,” J. Dankanich and E. Klein, 2012 IEEE Aerospace Conference, March 2012. The Lockheed-Martin-ATK team focused on a solid propellant first stage with either solid or liquid propellant for the upper stage, estimated MAV mass in the range 250 to 300 kg (550 to 660 lb), and identified technologies for development to reduce mass.“Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV): Designing for High Heritage and Low Risk,” D. Ross, J. Russell, and B. Sutter, 2012 IEEE Aerospace Conference, March 2012. Northrop-Grumman (the former TRW) similarly estimated a mass below 300 kg using pressure-fed liquid bipropellants for both stages, and had plans for further progress. Firestar Technologies described a single-stage MAV design having liquid fuel and oxidizer blended together in one main propellant tank.

In early 2011, the US National Research Council's Planetary Science Decadal Survey, which laid out mission planning priorities for the period 2013–2022, declared an MSR campaign its highest priority Flagship Mission for that period.National Academy of Sciences, National Academies Press, http://www.nap.edu/download.php?record_id=13117 , ''Vision and Voyages for Planetary Science in the Decade 2013–2022'', 2011; . Retrieved December 30, 2022 In particular, it endorsed the proposed Mars Astrobiology Explorer-Cacher

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