Airbus wins two offers for the Martian soil recovery mission The engineer

The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded Airbus two studies to design the key components of a Martian soil collection mission and their return to Earth

(Source: ESA / NASA )

By NASA and ESA in April 2018, the two studies will explore how to collect soil samples collected by NASA's Mars2020 robot, then launch them into orbit and bring them back to Earth. A Sample Fetch Rover will retrieve the 36 pen size metal cans that the Mars2020 mobile has filled. These samples will then be transferred to a Mars Ascent vehicle, which will place them in orbit around Mars.

If all goes well up to this point, an Earth Return Orbiter will then capture the container the size of a basketball, seal it "With the combined expertise of the team. ESA and NASA, this historic mission is ambitious and technologically very advanced, with two rovers interacting together on Mars for the first time, "said Ben Boyes, the Airbus. Project Manager for Sample Fetch Rover Study. "A double launch launch from the planet's surface and orbiting samples will allow for the first time to directly study Mars soil in Earth-based labs."

According to Airbus, the Sample Fetch Rover is expected to be launched in 2026, with the Earth Return Orbiter landing somewhere in the United States by the end of the decade. If Martian soil arrives on Earth, scientists around the world will spend years studying it using the latest equipment and techniques.

Martian soil collected by NASA's rover Curiosity on a sandbank called Rocknest (Credit: NASA) [19659003"AstrongshowofsamplesonMarsisagreat-soundingfilmthatisbeingproducedattheintersectionofmanygoodiestoexplorethespace"saidDavidDavidson'sDirectorofFlight"ThereisnoneedforanybodyinthefieldtobeabletobringsamplesfromtheblackandwhiteplanetstotheEarthforexaminationusingthebestfacilitiesisanessential"