Mars sample return

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Artist's impression of the restart of the Mars Ascent Vehicle (NASA)

Mars Sample Return ( MSR ) is the English term for a return of samples from Mars to Earth. Some of the concepts compete with manned Mars missions, but are often also intended as preparation for manned missions. The samples brought to earth could advance our understanding of the conditions on Mars better than the specialty rovers and orbiters are currently doing.

Soviet Union

In the Soviet Union there was the Mars 5NM project in the 1970s. It provided for a very large space probe with a mass of 20 t to take off to Mars with the N1 launch vehicle , land there, collect soil samples, start a return stage and a 13 kg return capsule with the samples returned to Earth. The launch was to take place in 1973, the mission would last a total of 970 days and the return capsule was scheduled to land in September 1975. Since all four test flights of the N1 launcher ended with crashes before the second stage ignited, the Mars 5NM project was abandoned in 1974.

Roscosmos

Today in Russia there is the Mars-Grunt project for the return of samples from Mars. A Mars probe weighing more than 6 t, consisting of Mars orbiter and Mars lander, is to launch together on an Angara 5 to Mars. The lander would collect around 200 g of samples, a restart stage with the samples would start into orbit around Mars, couple with the orbiter and this would return to Earth with the samples. A realization is not to be expected in the near future because the Russian spaceflight is chronically underfunded and, in addition, the Fobos-Grunt space probe, which was supposed to bring samples from the Martian moon Phobos back to Earth, already failed in orbit at the end of 2011.

ESA

A Mars sample return mission was part of the European Space Agency's Aurora program , but was not carried out due to lack of funding. However, such a mission in cooperation with NASA is still advocated for the future.

Lander with the Fetch Rover (above)
The Mars Sample Return Orbiter
Sample collection magazine for the soil samples

NASA

A NASA concept from 2001 envisaged three probes for a Mars sample return mission, each of which was supposed to lift off from Earth on board an Atlas V (551) . First a rover would take off to collect soil samples. About 20 drill samples of 5 cm length, 4 samples of collected regolith (loose material), as well as one dust sample and one gas sample from the Martian atmosphere were planned . The Max-C-Rover (Mars Astrobiology Explorer-Cacher), a NASA contribution to the originally European-American ExoMars program, was intended for this task . Two separate space probes were to be developed for the actual return of the samples , an orbiter , which would later return the samples to Earth, and a landing module . After arriving on Mars, the orbiter, which should have a mass of around 1000 kg and carry around 2000 kg of fuel , would enter a Mars orbit , braked by an aerobraking maneuver. The lander was supposed to land with the help of the Skycrane technology that had already been tried and tested at Curiosity . The one-ton lander was supposed to carry a small, 150 kg heavy fetch rover as its payload, which is to be constructed similarly to the Mars Exploration Rover . He was supposed to collect the samples from the Mars rover and bring them to a two-stage, about 2.5 meters high, 300 kg solid rocket (Mars Ascent Vehicle MAV). The payload of around 5 kg was then to be brought into a Mars orbit between 100 and 500 km high. The Fetch Rover should be able to travel 150 meters on a Martian day . The Mars Ascent Vehicle should reach Mars orbit with the samples, where they should be captured by the orbiter. The orbiter should then bring the samples back to Earth.

However, the MAX-C rover was not built and NASA got out of the ExoMars project. It is now proposed that the 2020 Mars rover should collect samples on Mars in 2020 . These could then be brought to Earth by a future Mars Sample Return Mission, which could run similar to the concept presented above. The landing platform and orbiter could also take off together with the space launch system . So far, however, there has been no concrete decision on the implementation of such a mission and funding.

CNSA

The space agency of the People's Republic of China is considering a sample return mission to Mars as the first operational flight of the super heavy lift missile Langer Marsch 9 . After the planned completion of the rocket in 2028, Template: future / in 5 years2029 would result in the first cheap launch window.

criticism

The samples could be dangerous for the earth as they could possibly contain microbes that life on earth cannot adapt to. There is thus the potential risk of backward contamination of the Earth's biosphere .

Cinematic implementation

The 2017 US science fiction horror film " Life " is about a fictional Mars sample return project called Mars Pilgrim 7 Mission . For safety reasons, the soil samples are only brought back to the International Space Station ISS in earth orbit and examined there. Undamaged single-cell organisms are found in the samples , from which intelligent living beings grow in the station laboratory through the supply of oxygen and nutrients. Due to its resilience and its will to survive, this creature very quickly presents itself as a deadly threat to the crew and arrives on earth.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. Mars 5NM in the Encyclopedia Astronautica (English)
  2. Roscosmos - Space missions Published by The Space Review Page 9-10
  3. ^ The Aurora Programs. (PDF) ESA, March 4, 2004, accessed March 10, 2016 .
  4. Mars Sample Return ESA page, accessed March 10, 2016.
  5. Mars Sample Return Campaign: An Overview (NASA's JPL) ( Memento from December 22, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) NASA concept (English)
  6. Jake Rosenthal: Mars 2020 and the Adaptive Caching Assembly: An Intern's Perspective . In: The Planetary Society , October 12, 2015. Retrieved March 10, 2016. 
  7. NASA interest in 2024 Mars Sample Return Mission using SLS and Orion nasaspaceflight.com
  8. ^ SLS manifest targets Europa and Mars Sample Return missions nasaspaceflight.com
  9. ^ Andrew Jones: China developing new launch vehicle for human spaceflight, future moon missions. In: Spacenews. November 13, 2018, accessed March 12, 2019 .

Web links

Commons : Mars sample return  - collection of images, videos and audio files