The work on the Mars sample return plans is progressing.
The Mars Ascent Vehicle is a small, lightweight, two-stage solid-propellant rocket with a big assignment: blast rock, sediment and atmospheric samples off Mars in the early 2030s, in the first- ever rocket launch from the surface of another planet.
The sample return campaign will include the MAV and the Sample Retrieval Lander. The spot where NASA's Perseverance rover is already gathering Mars samples will be where the MAV and SRL will land. The same area will be the location of a second lander carrying the European Space Agency.
The samples from the Perseverance rover will not make it to Earth until 2033 at the earliest.
Perseverance's samples will be brought to the MAV. The sample-filled container will be grabbed by the ERO when the rocket launches into Mars. If everything goes according to plan, the samples will be ejected from the EES and landed in the Utah desert in 2033
A special thermal protective material provided by NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley is used in the sample return capsule.
Steve Sides, senior program manager for the Mars Ascent Vehicle Integrated System (MAVIS), explained that there are significant challenges facing the team trying to return pristine samples from Mars.
Sides told Space.com that the MAV is 1.5 feet in diameter. He told them to aim it, point and shoot.
NASA is getting several MAV test units and a flight unit. The contract includes designing, developing, testing and evaluating the integrated MAV system.
The MAVIS contract has a value of $194 million and will last for six years. The time is running out. NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is where the SRL-MAV duo are expected to launch in 2028.
The goal is to land there early in the year and take off before the winter season starts.
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has 8 rocks on the Red Planet.
The use of a gas-generated concept is a novel aspect of the MAV design. The SRL is being built by engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The sample tubes will be put into the rocket by the SRL's robotic arm. The MAV will be thrown into the thin air above the lander that is a launch pad. The rocket's first-stage motor will ignite at that point.
Sides said that throwing a rocket up and getting it to light has been done before. He said that the VECTOR approach minimized blowback and interfered with the SRL.
The rocket high-tails it towards the red planet. The MAV gets on the order of 4,000 meters per second to get to Mars.
After the first stage separation, the spinup motor on the second stage will start spinning. We will coast for 10 to 15 days. A beacon on the upper stage will broadcast its location for rendezvous with the ERO.
There is a lot of technology involved in launching a rocket from Mars. There will be a lot of science from those Mars samples.
It has been on NASA's to-do list for a long time. The technology and time to do this is right. Sides said we just have to do it. He said he wouldn't put it in the easy category. We have the ability now.
The associate administrator for science at NASA headquarters in Washington said in an agency statement in February that committing to the MAV is an early and concrete step to hammer out the details of the project.
The bits and pieces of Mars will hit the ground in Utah.
Engineers have been testing the Mars Sample Return EES at the Utah Test and Training Range.
The MDU was dropped from an altitude of 1200 feet to give it time to reach the intended landing speed.
NASA's Jim Corliss, a Mars Sample Return EES chief engineer, said that the MDU was stable and survived the impact.
"We are nearing the end of the conceptual phase for this Mars Sample Return mission, and the pieces are coming together to bring home the first samples from another planet," Zurbuchen said. State-of- the-art tools can be used to study them on Earth.
The book "Moon Rush: The New Space Race" was published by National Geographic. David has been writing about the space industry for more than 50 years. We encourage you to follow us on social media:
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