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NASA awarded Northrop Grumman a contract worth up to $ 84.5 million earlier this month to supply rocket engines for a one-of-a-kind launch vehicle to fire a capsule from rock samples off Mars on a return trip to Earth.
The Mars Ascent Vehicle will fly to the Red Planet on a robotic mission slated for launch in 2026. The objective of the mission is to collect rock specimens collected by NASA’s Perseverance rover, which has landed on March last month.
The elements of the Mars Sample Return mission should be launched on two rockets in 2026. Part of the mission will be launched on an American rocket and will deliver a rover to the Martian surface to recover the samples collected by Perseverance, with a makeshift pad launch and the Mars Ascent vehicle.
The rover will load the rock specimens into the capsule above the rocket. Next, the Mars Ascent vehicle will put the sample cartridge into orbit around the Red Planet, where a European Space Agency spacecraft will meet with the sample holder.
The European orbiter will hang the sample and place it for its return to Earth. If all goes according to plan, the entire campaign to bring home specimens from Mars will cost around $ 7 billion, and the materials could be back on Earth by 2031.
One of the untested mission items required for the Mars Sample Return Program is the rocket that will boost rock specimens off the Red Planet.
Northrop Grumman has been awarded the Mars Ascent Propulsion System, or MAPS, contract to “provide propulsion support and products” for the Mars Sample Return Program, “NASA announced on March 4. value of $ 60.2 million and a maximum potential value of $ 84.5 million.
“The Martian environment will be an important factor in the design, development, manufacture, testing and qualification of two different solid-state rocket engines with multiple deliveries from each,” NASA said in a statement. “As part of the MAPS contract, Northrop Grumman will supply the propulsion systems for the MAV, as well as other support equipment and logistics services.”
“We are committed to helping build the rockets that will put the samples collected by Perseverance into orbit so they can be returned to Earth,” said Rebecca Torzone, vice president of missile products at Northrop Grumman. “We play a vital role with NASA, as we have for decades, providing key propulsion and control subsystems in support of human spaceflight and robotic exploration missions.
Based on the preliminary design constraints, the Mars Ascent vehicle cannot measure more than 9.2 feet (2.8 meters) and not more than 1.9 feet (57 centimeters). Its total take-off weight must not exceed 881 pounds (400 kilograms).
Martian gravity is only 38% of that of Earth, which means that a rocket designed to launch a payload into orbit can be much smaller on Mars. And the MAV only needs to deliver between 30 and 35 pounds (14 to 16 kilograms) of payload into orbit around Mars.
The requirements stack up to create an MAV concept that’s tiny by launchers standards, but it’s just enough to get the job done, according to engineers at NASA. After initially reviewing the design of a single-stage hybrid-powered rocket, engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., Determined that a solid-fuel double-stage rocket was the best choice for the Mars Ascent vehicle.
Last year, NASA officials said the selection of the Perseverance rover’s landing site in Jezero Crater, which will also be the MAV launch site, allowed engineers to consider a rocket design at solid fuel. Located near the Martian equator, Jezero is home to a dry lake and river, which scientists believe may preserve signatures of ancient life.
Jezero’s climate is warmer than other locations considered for Perseverance to land, making it more conducive to solid rocket engines, which consume pre-packaged thrusters. Jim Watzin, the former head of NASA’s Mars exploration program, said last year that solid rocket engines are “a well-known and established entity.”
“We made a choice to go with something that we know and understand, which wasn’t necessarily going to have a big challenge with the new revised temperature limits that we’re going to face,” Watzin said.
The MAV will launch in mid-2026 with the US-built Sample Retrieval Lander and a European fetch rover. According to current mission plans, the rocket will not be fired until mid-2029 to begin the journey back to Earth.
Northrop Grumman supplies solid fuel rocket engines for military missiles and satellite launchers, which are sometimes stored for decades before use. The MAV stages will be launched preloaded with solid thrusters.
Thiokol Propulsion, now part of Northrop Grumman after a series of business acquisitions, developed a solid rocket engine for NASA’s Magellan spacecraft that successfully fired after more than 15 months in space for place the probe in orbit around Venus in 1990.
According to NASA, Northrop Grumman has a proprietary solid propellant formulation that could be used for the Mars Ascent vehicle.
Northrop Grumman said in a statement that it will supply a variant of its solid Star-class rocket motors for the first and second stages of the Mars Ascent vehicle, as well as the first stage and small thrust vector control steering system. rockets for stabilizing the rotation of the second stage.
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