NASA’s Next Mars Sample Return Mission Plan Just Got a Glow: It Will Now Carry a Pair of Twins helicopterseach capable of retrieving samples and delivering them to the ascent vehicle for return to Earth.
The helicopters replace a previously planned search rover, which has now been dropped from the plan entirely. The search rover would have required a second lander, while the helicopters can fit alongside the ascent vehicle, simplifying the mission and reducing its cost and overall complexity.
The decision was announced in a press release earlier this week, which indicated that NASA had finished reviewing the system requirements for the Sample Return mission.
Sample return efforts are already in progress, as the Perseverance Rover is actively collecting samples from scientifically important sites in Jezero Crater on Mars, and has been doing so since early 2021 at a later date. However, Perseverance is still going strong, and NASA hopes it will last long enough to deliver the samples to the ascent vehicle itself. The two helicopters will provide redundant delivery capabilities, should Perseverance fail.
Several recent developments made the updated plan possible. The longevity of perseverance is one of them. The other is the sheer success of Ingenuity, Perseverance’s companion helicopter, which made the first powered flight on Mars in 2021. It has now outlasted its expected operational life by more than a year, having made 29 flights in that time. More than just a proof of concept, Ingenuity has shown that powered flight vehicles can be skilled and versatile workhorses for a variety of tasks on Mars.
At a press conference on July 27, Richard Cook, Mars Sample Return Program Manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, indicated that the new helicopters will differ from Ingenuity in two ways. The first is that they will have a set of small wheels instead of landing legs “that allow the helicopters to traverse the surface on the ground and fly… and second, each of the helicopters will have a small arm that can be extended towards down. and grab the… sample tubes. These abilities will only be needed if Perseverance can’t deliver the samples himself, but his presence is a reassuring insurance policy in case things go wrong with the rover.
The helicopters, along with the lander carrying the ascent stage, are expected to launch from Earth in 2028 (an orbiter built by the European Space Agency [ESA] will precede them in 2027). After Perseverance and/or helicopters retrieve the samples, the ascent stage will carry them into Mars orbit and rendezvous with the orbiter, before returning the precious core samples to Earth in 2033.
Changes to the Mars Sample Return Program confirm recommendations from the Decadal Planetary Science Survey, released in April 2022. The survey indicated that a successful Mars sample return should be the top scientific priority for exploration efforts. NASA robotics this decade, but not at the expense of other missions. “Their cost should not be allowed to undermine the long-term programmatic balance of the planetary portfolio,” the survey warned. Restructuring the mission to make a second rover and lander unnecessary should help keep costs manageable, while Ingenuity’s success offers compelling evidence that the new plan should be feasible.
If all goes well, scientists will soon be affected by the large amount of Martian dust and rock. Along with the efforts of NASA and ESA, a Chinese Sample Return Mission is scheduled to return Martian soil to Earth by 2031, and a japanese mission plans to return samples from Mars’ largest moon, Phobos, in 2029.
While in-situ geology conducted by rovers like Perseverance and its predecessor Curiosity can tell us much about conditions on Mars, there are research tools and techniques possible in laboratories on Earth that no rover can match. Sample return missions will allow scientists to study minerals in more detail, uncovering the history of the Red Planet and potentially its ecosystems (if it ever had any).
The financing of the project is also falling into place. Yesterday, the US Senate released its FY23 spending bill, proposing to give NASA the funds it requested for next year to move the project forward.
You can read more about the sample return mission here: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-will-inspire-world-when-it-returns-mars-samples-to-earth-in-2033
Featured image: Artist’s rendering of the Mars Sample Return Program infrastructure. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.