NASA, ESA to Share New Details About Mars Sample Return Next Week

NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) will soon discuss how they will go about getting Perseverance's Mars rock samples to Earth.

The two space agencies recently announced they would hold a press conference to discuss the architecture of their planned Mars sample return mission next week.

NASA and the ESA previously asked the public for their opinion on its Mars sample return mission in early May following the revisions they made to their original plan.

NASA Mars sample return vehicles — This illustration shows a concept for a proposed NASA Mars lander-and-rocket combination that would play a key role in returning to Earth samples of Mars material collected by the Perseverance rover. This Sample Retrieval Lander would carry a small rocket (about 10 feet, or 3 meters, tall) called the Mars Ascent Vehicle to the Martian surface. After using a robotic arm to load the rover’s sealed sample tubes into a container in the nose cone of the rocket, the lander would launch the Mars Ascent Vehicle into orbit around the Red Planet. NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return Mission Press Conference Details

NASA and the ESA mentioned in their announcement that they would reveal new details and more information about its planned Mars sample return mission on July 27 at 11 AM EDT.

This announcement follows the same theme the two space agencies started with them asking for the public's opinion on the return mission in early May.

Back then, NASA stated that the public meetings it would hold would reveal what planners were doing to ensure a "safe and secure return of the samples" in pursuit of backward planetary protection.

Experts from Cambridge University said in a report published in the journal "International Journal of Astrobiology" defined backward planetary protection as the practice of protecting life on Earth from being contaminated by objects from space and vice versa in pursuit of preserving them as they are.

"One of the key factors in understanding any potential extant or extinct biology on Mars is that it is not to be irrevocably contaminated before its existence can be confirmed, a critical facet of forward planetary protection," the experts wrote. "Should life exist, it becomes critically important to prevent harmful backward contamination from a putative extraterrestrial life form, during sample return missions to Earth."

Although there have been other sample returns missions launched in the past, what makes the one from Mars unique is that the samples could hold signs that life existed on the Red Planet in the distant past. This uniqueness is in contrast to the other return missions (i.e. Hayabusa Itokawa asteroid sample return mission), which are from celestial bodies that are confirmed to be unable to support life even in the past.

Additionally, if a return sample mission would be launched from a celestial body that was confirmed to be unable to support life, experts would classify it as an "unrestricted Earth return" mission.

Interestingly, there has been one such instance of a restricted Earth return mission in 1969, when Apollo 11 and 12 astronauts returned from the moon and were quarantined until the dust and rocks from the moon did not present a biological threat to Earth.

Current Mars Sample Return Mission Details

Following the revisions made to the original plan, NASA and the ESA now plans a split in the Mars lander missions into two separate spacecraft to reduce the overall risk of the program. One of them would carry the rover that would take Perseverance's samples, while the other contains the vehicle needed for the samples to exit Mars.

Once the rover collects the samples, it would then deposit them to the ascent vehicle, which would take off from its landing site in Mars to await pick up by an Earth Return Orbiter. The orbiter would then seal the canister in a biocontainment system and then return to Earth.

Once in Earth's proximity, the orbiter would release the entry capsule for it to end up in a specialized handling facility at the US Air Force's Utah Test and Training Range.

Using the two-lander design would allow the two space agencies to use the same landing system that Perseverance and Curiosity used when they landed on Mars.

This method will allow the space agencies to avoid the complexity of a single-lander design, which was the original plan, according to the American Institute of Physics.