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NASA’s Perseverance rover is currently orbiting the red planet, collecting samples and transmitting data back to Earth. NASA plans to launch new missions over the next few years in partnership with ESA aimed at collecting these samples and returning them to Earth. The agency just completed a major review of the Mars sample return program, and there are some significant changes (and not the first). NASA cancels Sample Fetch Rover and adds a pair of helicopters based on Ingenuity’s design.
In addition to its suite of cameras and science instruments, the Perseverance rover has a sample caching system designed to store rock cores in ultrasterile containers. NASA had a little trouble with this mechanism at first, but the rover successfully stocked up on Martian rocks. NASA only had a vague outline of the plan to return these samples to Earth when Perseverance lands on Mars in 2021, but we’re getting closer to the final plan for this ambitious mission.
NASA says updated Perseverance life expectancy estimates mean the sample return mission won’t need a new rover at all. Instead, Perseverance will be the primary means of transporting samples to the Mars Ascent Vehicle, but the lander will also include a pair of sample recovery helicopters that build on Ingenuity’s design. NASA originally expected the plane, the first to fly to another planet, to last only a few months before its finished hardware failed. Yet he flew 29 times and survived a year longer than originally estimated. The new helicopters will act as a secondary method of retrieving samples from the surface.
Delivering pristine Martian samples to Earth opens up a range of scientific research not possible with a robotic Mars mission. So far, Perseverance has collected 11 potentially interesting samples and has room for several dozen more.
After the samples are loaded into the capture, retention and return system, the Mars Ascent Vehicle will send them into orbit. There, the payload will rendezvous with ESA’s Earth Return Orbiter – no changes are recommended for this part of the mission. NASA expects to launch the Sample Retrieval Lander in 2028, and ESA’s orbiter will leave Earth (temporarily) in 2027. The samples should arrive on Earth in 2033, if all goes according to plan. The weather could change dramatically if NASA or ESA miss their launch windows. China has also recently announced that it hopes to defeat NASA and ESA.
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