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NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover will store rock and soil samples in sealed tubes on the planet’s surface for future missions to be recovered, as shown in this illustration. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
The advice will help analyze current plans and goals for one of the most difficult missions humanity has ever undertaken.
NASA established a March An independent Sample Return Program Review Committee will proactively help analyze current plans and goals for one of the most difficult missions humanity has ever undertaken: the return of samples from a another planet to study them on Earth.
When the Perseverance rover launched to Mars on July 30, it carried with it a sophisticated sampling system with drills, coring arm, and sampling tubes which are the cleanest hardware ever to be sent to space. . Perseverance will collect samples from several locations on Mars for return to Earth so scientists can determine if ancient microbial life was ever present on the Red Planet. The Independent Review Panel will assist NASA in reviewing the technical concept developed during preliminary formulation to date to verify its robustness and ability to meet essential mission requirements. This will help ensure that the agency adopts lessons learned from its experience with previous major strategic science missions.
“The return of samples from Mars is a very high priority for the scientific community, based on the decadal survey and also of strategic importance to our Moon-to-Mars exploration program,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA for Science at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “This is an extremely complex international mission that requires focus to achieve technical, programmatic, and mission success, and we want to have all the expertise available to us at this early stage to maximize mission success.”
In the past, NASA has successfully used independent reviews for preliminary strategic missions to put these important science missions on the path to success. As a recent example, the 2017 independent review of the Roman Space Telescope (formerly WFIRST) Helped the team to pass the scope and cost transactions before confirmation.
This first stage of the round trip from Earth to Mars and back would take place during multiple missions in partnership with ESA (European Space Agency) as well as industrial partners. The mission architecture in its earliest formulation involves perseverance taking samples and leaving them on the surface of Mars for a “seek” rover, which delivers them to an ascension vehicle that would take them into orbit, while an orbiter launched on another mission would. meet the samples and take them to a highly secure containment capsule to land on Earth as early as 2031.
The returned samples could potentially provide the astrobiological evidence needed to determine if life ever existed on Mars. The mission itself also advances technologies for human exploration of the Red Planet, including the first launch from the surface of another planet. Strict protocols on upstream and downstream harmful contaminations are being developed for the return of samples.
“NASA is putting together this independent advice to help the agency learn from past experiences and uncover subtle problems in space systems that may not yet have received enough attention,” said David Thompson. , retired chairman of Orbital ATK, who will chair the new board. “This review will give us the opportunity to focus on the overall success of the mission and consider potential improvements that can be made early in the program to help ensure this outcome.”
Experts from various fields, including planetary protection, and NASA’s partner in the mission, ESA, will be consulted as the review process progresses. The board is expected to meet for approximately eight weeks from the end of August and present a final report within weeks of completing its review.
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