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Launch of the Mars Ascent vehicle with samples: This illustration shows a concept of how NASA’s Mars Ascension Vehicle, carrying tubes containing rock and soil samples, could be launched from the surface of Mars in a one-stage return mission d ‘samples from Mars. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech. Full picture and caption ›
This award brings NASA and ESA closer to achieving Mars Sample Return, an ambitious planetary exploration program that will draw on decades of science, knowledge and experience.
NASA awarded the Mars Ascent Propulsion System (MAPS) contract to Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation of Elkton, Maryland, to provide support and propulsion products for space flight missions at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville , Alabama. Associated with the successful touch of the Mars Perseverance rover, this award brings NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) closer to the realization of Mars Sample Return (MSR), a very ambitious planetary exploration program that will be based on decades of science, knowledge, and the experience of exploring Mars.
The fixed fee plus contract has a potential mission services value of $ 60.2 million and a maximum potential value of $ 84.5 million. The contract begins Thursday, March 4, with a base period of 14 months, followed by two option periods which can be exercised at the discretion of NASA.
In the next steps of the MSR campaign, NASA and ESA will provide components for a Lander sample recovery mission and an Earth Return Orbiter mission. The Sample Retrieval Lander mission will deliver a Sample Fetch Rover and a Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) to the surface of Mars. Marshall is responsible for the MAV element of the MSR program, which is a double-decker vehicle that will be a critical part of helping MSR recover and return the samples that the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover will collect for return to Earth. The Martian environment will be an important factor in the design, development, manufacture, testing and qualification of two different solid rocket engines with multiple shipments of each. Under the MAPS contract, Northrop Grumman will supply the propulsion systems for the MAV, as well as other support equipment and logistics services.
Bringing samples from Mars back to Earth will allow scientists around the world to examine the specimens using sophisticated instruments too large and too complex to be sent to Mars, and allow future generations to study them using ‘technology that is not yet available. Preserving samples on Earth will allow the scientific community to test new theories and models as they develop, just as Apollo samples returned from the Moon have been doing for decades.
For more information on NASA and other agency programs, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov
Contacts for news media
Gray Gravestone / Alana Johnson / Joshua Handal
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0668 / 202-358-1501 / 202-358-2307
[email protected] / [email protected] / [email protected]
Janet Sudnik
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-544-1216
[email protected]
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