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March being the subject of so much exciting space research in recent times, scientists have to scramble to get their hands on some of those dusty red rocks that until now we've been able to see that by images returned to Earth
In April, we learned that NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) had teamed up to complete a project: recover samples from the red planet and bring them back on Earth for the first time.
This week, the bold plan took a big step forward when ESA awarded Airbus a $ 5.3 million contract to design a concept vehicle capable of recovering Martian samples that have already been collected by the robot March 2020. The vehicle would then load them on board an ascending vehicle that would put the samples into orbit before being transported to Earth in a separate spacecraft.
If it sounds like a diabolically difficult project, then you're right.
The rover said "fetch" will be built by Airbus on his site Stevenage, England, just north of London
"A mobile to Mars in 2020 is already under construction by Airbus Stevenage and knowledge and refined expertise will now be applied to the design of this new mission, which aims to provide for the first time safely land-based material from another planet, "said the British Minister of Science Sam Gyimah
The project runs smoothly, the team behind the fetch rover aims to send it in 2026.
"It will be a relatively small mobile, about 130kg, but the requirements are very demanding, "Ben Boyes, leader of the team feasibility at Airbus, told the BBC." The vehicle will have to travel great distances with a high degree of autonomy, planning its own path day after day. »
How is all this going to be?
The March 2020 rover will drill and collect soil samples of interest, transfer them into small containers and place them at pickup points.
years later, an ascent vehicle will land on Mars, with the fetch rover. The robot will pick up the cartridges and bring them back to the vehicle. The lift vehicle will then leave Mars and meet an orbiter that will return to Earth with the samples.
At least that's the plan.
Technology is complex and under development, so schedules may change. Boyes said that one of the "cool new technologies we want for the mobile is to be able to visually detect the remote canisters and then drive them and pick them up automatically."
Scientists say the samples could provide answers to questions about life on Mars and hope that our understanding of the planet will reach a whole new level.
Commenting on the project, British astronaut Tim Peake, who spent time aboard the International Space Station in 2015/2016, said we are now in an exciting new era where space companies and agencies are working more than ever on ambitious missions to expand our knowledge of the solar system and bring benefits to people's lives. "
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