A mission architecture concept from NASA and the European Space Agency will be presented at the briefing.
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Next week, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) will present fresh information on their plans for bringing parts of Mars to Earth.
On Wednesday, July 27, at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT), the agencies will host a press conference announcing the return of the Mars sample.
The project's goal is to return to Earth as soon as 2033 using Martian samples collected by the Perseverance rover. The objective is to enable researchers to examine the samples for any evidence of early Martian life as well as details on how the Red Planet changed through the ages.
The agencies "recently convened a systems requirement review as part of the Mars Sample Return campaign's conceptual design phase—a phase when the architecture is developed and finalised," NASA stated in a statement(opens in new tab) announcing the news conference. Architecture (in the context of spaceflight missions) often refers to the ideas that underpin how a mission will be carried out.)
If the timeline holds, the architecture proposal will be completed in September, and the agencies will probably go over the process for approval during the briefing.
Those attending the briefing will be:
- Thomas Zurbuchen, a NASA Science Mission Directorate associate administrator
- David Parker, head of the Human and Robotic Exploration division of ESA
- Director of NASA's Mars Sample Return Program Jeff Gramling
- Head of the ESA's Mars exploration team Francois Spoto
In May of this year, NASA requested public feedback on an environmental assessment for the mission through online submissions and two virtual public meetings. According to NASA officials at the time, the organisation will take these suggestions into account when the mission is developed and intends to publish a draught environmental impact statement later in 2022.
When the alliance opted to create a second lander because of the mission's mass requirements in March, the design underwent a significant alteration. While the second lander will carry an ESA-built "fetch rover" to collect Perseverance's samples, the first lander will carry a NASA-developed Mars ascent vehicle (MAV) to the planet's surface.
The fetch rover will load the MAV with the cache it has collected from Perseverance while gathering data in Mars' Jezero Crater. The samples will subsequently be launched by the MAV and sent to Mars orbit where they will be transferred to an ESA-provided Earth-return orbiter for return to Earth.
The second lander extends the mission's duration by two years, to 2028, and another two years, to 2031, for the mission's return to Earth.
Nevertheless, it was the right decision, according to NASA officials. The altered strategy, according to them, "is consistent with the Mars Sample Return Independent Review Board's (IRB) assessment that a dual-lander design may increase the chance of mission success."