First-Ever Rocket Launch from Mars? NASA and ESA Working to Bring Martian Soil Back To Earth
NASA and the European Space Agency are working together to explore options for missions that could take the next steps to bring samples back from Mars. This will require at least three missions from Earth, and one never-been-done-before rocket launch from Mars. A first mission, NASA's 2020 Mars Rover, is set to collect surface samples in pen-sized canisters. In the same period, ESA's ExoMars rover, which is also set to land on Mars in 2021, will be drilling below the surface to search for evidence of life. A second mission with a small fetch rover would land nearby and retrieve the samples in a search-and-rescue operation. This rover would bring the samples back to its lander and place them in a Mars Ascent Vehicle - a small rocket to launch the football-sized container into Mars orbit. A third launch from Earth would provide a spacecraft sent to orbit Mars and rendezvous with the sample containers.
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Transcript
00:00:01 [music] The planet Mars has been mysterious for centuries but over the past few decades a fleet of orbiting and landed spacecraft has greatly advanced our understanding of it. Based on this knowledge Mars scientists are now ready to take the next big step bringing Martian samples back to earth where the full power of our terrestrial laboratories could be applied to unlocking the story of the red planet's geology climate and especially its potential for life, either in the past or even today. But however you tackle it returning samples from Mars is definitely a complicated problem, so how could we actually get a sample from Mars? One approach is to use a series of three
00:00:48 spacecraft working together like a relay team to deliver samples to Earth. NASA's next Mars rover, currently in development and planned for launch in 2020, will acquire a set of carefully selected samples of rocks and surface material and store them in sealed tubes for possible return to Earth. NASA and the European Space Agency are now working together to explore options for a pair of missions that could take the next steps to bring these samples back. In one scenario after the Mars 2020 Rover has placed its collected samples on the Martian surface a second follow-on mission would land nearby, deploy a small Rover to fetch the samples, and bring them back to the lander where there would be loaded into
00:01:31 a container and placed atop a small rocket. The rocket would then lift off carrying the samples up into Mars orbit. Waiting in orbit will be a third spacecraft, an Earth return orbiter that would find the samples in space, catch up with them, capture the container and bring it back to Earth. With Mars samples safely back on earth scientists around the world would be able to study them in state-of-the-art laboratories for decades to come. The payoff of a sample return would be a breakthrough in our understanding of the history of Mars and of the potential for life beyond our home planet.