NASA gears up to bring back samples from Mars

The final details of NASA's future program to bring back martian samples, also known as the Mars Sample Return Program, are being smoothed out by the agency.

In the conceptual design phase, scientists and designers inspect every facet of the return plan and make necessary changes to ensure success. The plan used to include several steps to introduce a Sample Fetch Rover into missions, which has now been replaced by two recovery choppers.

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The European Space Agency and NASA collaborated on this design. The European Space Agency is working on a device that will make the historic round-trip from Earth to Mars and back again, as well as a Sample Transfer Arm that will place sample tubes within the device. Scientists will be able to build the first prototypes over the next year.

The recent successes in ongoing missions inspired the alterations to the program's novel design. Changes to the plan can be attributed to Perseverance's recent successes at Jezero and the amazing performance of our Mars helicopter.

The current Mars helicopter, known as Ingenuity, was launched in July 2020 on the back of Mars' Perseverance rover, as a test for sustained, controlled flight on the surface of another planet. NASA said that Ingenuity's was the first flight of its kind in any world outside of Earth.

Zurbuchen said that working together on historic endeavors like Mars Sample Return gives valuable data about our place in the universe and brings us closer together.

Original concept art for the retrieval program, which included a small sample rocket. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech

Mars helicopter images from April show debris on the planet's surface. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech

A collection of samples is being retrieved by NASA's Perseverance rover in the planet's Jezero crater, which will then be sent back to our home planet for study. Perseverance will be the main means of delivering samples to the Sample Retrieval Lander.

The plan has excited a lot of people. On July 25, representatives from NASA and the European Space Agency laid out the current plan for sample return, which includes the launch of the Earth Return Orbiter and Sample Retrieval Lander in fall 2027 and summer 2028.

We don't want to get too excited. The sample return program is not expected to return any samples until 2033. We will simply look at the images captured by Perseverance.