NASA’s Perseverance rover proved dangerous landing on the surface of Mars – but there are unprecedented challenges ahead. A decade from now, in 2031, it will be the first ever to send samples from the red planet back to Earth.
The plan, known as Mars Sample Return, or MSR, includes three missions running over the next 10 years.
“The idea of taking a sample back from Mars dates back decades,” Ken Farley, the mission’s project scientist, said in a statement earlier this month. “We are now in a situation where everything is going according to plan, samples will be coming back to Earth in 2031. That sounds like a long time, but this has to be a fact 10 years away from I was in grad school. Now we do it. ”
In many ways, Sustainability it is similar to its older siblings: Opportunity (2004), Spirit (2004), Sojourner (1997), and Curiosity (2012). But permanence is greater and heavier, and scientists have replaced their on-board laboratory with a sample-capture system to collect rocks and soil and prepare them for the return journey.
Scientists have never brought a piece of another planet back to Earth.
NASA / JPL-Caltech
Where do the samples come from?
Perseverance landed at the edge of the Crater Jezero, a landscape that has long been on the minds of scientists but was previously considered as well dangerous to land. The crater is thought to have contained a large lake, billions of years ago when the surface of Mars melted.
“Scientists look for rocks that could be formed in water, possibly preserving evidence of life-building chemical blocks,” Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Department of Planning Science, said in press release last month.
Jezero has a well-preserved river delta, formed when a river deposited large amounts of sediment as it emptied into a larger body of water. Life thrives in river deltas on Earth – scientists hope the same was true of ancient Mars.
“Jezero would have been a place to live,” Farley said. “Life is as we know it could have lived in that lake, and delta mud is incredibly good at preserving the biosignatures of life.”
“It’s not just about the sample, it’s about the geological context of that sample that will also be studied,” Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s director of science operations, said in a news conference Wednesday.
NASA / JPL-Caltech
Collecting pieces of Mars to send home
The durability of a sample using a drill bit, which cuts cylinder coils into a Martian surface, is obtained over about two years. Hearts give researchers a cross-sectional view of the layers and other features of the rock.
The rover receives about 40 cores from the ground, each weighing about half an ounce, or about the size of a piece of chalk. He seals them three-ply in sample tubes to keep them in solid condition. And the next step is something somewhat unusual: He puts them down on the Martian surface, and leaves them there.
“After we drill, we do something that looks deceptive: We put them on the ground in what we call deposits,” Farley said. “In the next two parts of the program, we’ll get them and bring them back.”
In 2026 or 2028, NASA will launch Sample Retrieval Lander to Mars, in partnership with the European Space Agency. There will be both a rover and a rocket called the Mars Ascent Vehicle.
After landing at Jezero in 2028, the “bugian dune Martian” will cross the surface, recover the rights left by Stability and load them into the rocket. Once sealed, the rocket will prepare for the first ever attempted launch from another planet.
NASA / JPL-Caltech
The rocket takes off from the surface of Mars and drops a basket about the size of a basketball, containing the samples, into orbit around the red planet.
“Just like the baton in a relay race, this vessel is at the heart of sample return,” Bobby Braun, director of planetary science at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, explained in a news conference.
To complete the orbit, another spacecraft will make the long voyage to Mars orbit. The giant Earth Return Orbiter, which is the size of a plane, will return and capture deposits of rock symbols that orbit the planet and then return to Earth, hopefully in 2031.
“If it feels complicated, it is,” Glaze said. “If it’s really extreme, it certainly is.”
Scientists say the timeline of nearly two decades from project development to sample retrieval makes perfect sense.
“It’s just too complicated to put it off at once,” Farley said. “And it makes a lot of sense to spread it out over a number of years so the amount of money that goes you need in one year too much. Also, you need a lot of talent to create the new things and build every piece of this mission needs. By developing them over an extended period of time, we can have enough engineers for that. “
NASA / JPL-Caltech
Looking for signs of a past life on another planet
When looking for signs of life billions of years ago, scientists have to use large, highly sensitive instruments. That’s one reason the samples can’t be examined with the rover on Mars – the necessary tools are just too big and too complex.
“Some of the instruments we use for testing are as big as a car,” Farley said. “You can’t just fly something like that, so if we’re going to get a quantitative history on Mars and clear evidence for a possible Martian life, we need to bring back samples. “
NASA is investigating either modifying existing facilities or creating new facilities to hold the valuable samples.
The samples will provide insights into the history of Mars, but may also help scientists gain a better understanding of our origins on Earth. Scientists will be able to test new theories as they are developed, in the same way they did for decades with the Apollo samples from the moon.
“While we have Martian meteorites here on Earth, it’s very different than getting samples of Mars rocks and soil that are pristine, and that we know exactly where they came from,” he said. Glaze. “Samples from Mars have the potential to dramatically alter our understanding of the origin, evolution and circulation of life on Earth and elsewhere in the solar system.”
The mission will also be a means for future human exploration of the red planet. Accurate landing technology, launching a rocket from the Martian surface and assessing all ground features are essential to ensure health and safety future astronauts.
“MSR will nurture important engineering advances for humanity and advance technologies needed to accomplish the first round-trip mission to another planet,” said Jeff Gramling, Mars Sample Return program director at NASA Headquarters. “The scientific advances that pristine Martian samples offer through MSR are unparalleled, and this mission will contribute to NASA’s ultimate goal of sending humans to Mars.”