Mars on Earth: bringing back samples of the red planet: a daunting challenge

How can we bring a sample of Mars back safely to Earth? While scientists around the world are curious about the Red Planet's potential for life, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are currently working on a future "sample return" mission to study in Europe. safely Martian materials.

A possible place for the hunt for samples could be a Martian place called Jezero Crater, the site of an ancient lake – and perhaps also a place for old microbes.

While rovers and landers can study Mars when they land there, the challenge is that the space available on these machines is limited. On Earth, whole laboratories could study the regolith and rocks of the red planet. But returning the samples to our planet will be a considerable technical challenge.

Related: Back samples on Mars: scientists discuss how to bring the planet's red rocks to Earth

Officials from ESA said in a statement that both agencies plan to carry out three launches from Earth and one since March as part of the mission, which will include two Mars rovers and an autonomous docking in Martian orbit.

"A launch of NASA will send the landing mission sample with return to a platform near the site of Mars 2020. From there, a small mobile ESA the Sample Fetch Rover will take care of recovering the cached samples, "said the ESA official. said in another statement.

"Once he has collected them in what could be compared to an interplanetary treasure hunt, he will return to the landing gear platform and load them into a single large container of the Mars Ascent vehicle. will perform the first takeoff of Mars and carry the Earth Return Orbiter from ESA will be the next mission, scheduled to capture a container the size of a basketball in orbit around Mars … the probe will then return to Earth where it will release the entrance capsule for the samples to end up in a specialized handling center. "

Once the samples arrive on Earth, they will be quarantined – in the same way as the Apollo 11, 12 and 14 astronauts. isolated after their lunar missions about 50 years ago. Scientists are reviewing the guidelines for protecting the planet in anticipation of this Martian event, ESA officials said.

"The quarantine will take place in a sample receiving facility, where samples will already provide a mine of information to scientists even before they open." Any Martian dust likely to cover the outside of the tubes will 39; sample can be analyzed and non-invasive techniques such as X-ray examinations can be performed even on unopened tubes, "said ESA officials. "Once the sample tubes are open, a predetermined set of initial measurements will generate a detailed catalog of information, which will allow specialized scientific investigations to target specific parts of the samples."

Once the time has come to open the samples, scientists must carefully review the schedule. Any Martian atmosphere trapped in the tubes can mix with that of the Earth as soon as it opens, which would change the natural chemical signatures of the red planet.

Some experiments must destroy samples of materials, said ESA officials. Even sterilization by heat, radiation or chemical processes is problematic: although it is important to ensure the safety of Earthling, the process could change some samples of their condition on the red planet.

ESA plans to hold a Space19 + council, a high-level government meeting, in November to determine its interest and participation in a future Mars return mission, which would also be attended by NASA.

"The return of samples to Mars would be a huge step forward for science and exploration of the solar system," said Sanjay Vijendran, coordinator of the March 's March Sample Recovery campaign. ESA, in a statement. "The samples will advance our understanding of Mars, the history of our solar system, and help us plan our future exploration missions."

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