Space News by Jeff Foust July 28, 2019
While neither NASA nor the European Space Agency has yet to give formal approval, or funding, for missions to return samples from Mars, both agencies are taking steps to refine plans for what those missions will be.
Those plans, discussed at a Mars science conference and working group meeting last week, would involve two launches in 2026 to send spacecraft to fetch samples collected by NASA’s Mars 2020 rover and return them to Earth in 2031.
NASA and ESA officials signed a statement of intent in April 2018 to study cooperation on a series, or “campaign,†of Mars sample return missions that follow a “lean†sample return architecture announced by NASA in August 2017. Under the proposed cooperation, NASA would provide a Mars lander mission, with a European-built rover, that would grab the samples collected by Mars 2020 and place them into a Mars ascent vehicle, a small rocket that would launch them into Mars orbit. An Earth return orbiter, built by ESA, would collect the sample container and return it to Earth.
That remains the overall plan, Jim Watzin, director of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, said in a July 26 presentation at a meeting of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) in Pasadena, California. “We want to pull this plan together and present it to the decision authorities for a decision by the end of the 2019 timeframe,†he said.
More:
https://spacenews.com/mars-sample-return-mission-plans-begin-to-take-shape/
