How will NASA return samples from Mars?

The second attempt to collect perseverance can be seen in this compound of two images taken on 1 September 2021 by one of the rooms of navigation of perseverance.

NASA has partnered with the European Space Agency to develop a campaign to bring monster specimens back to Earth. On September 1, Nasa’s perseverance Rover deployed his arm, placed a drill on the surface of Mars and drilled about 2 centimeters or 6 centimeters to withdraw a rock core.

The Rover sealed the rock core in his tube. This historic event marks the first time a space probe has recorded a rock sample from another planet that could be returned to Earth by a future space probe.

Role of a multi-missing campaign designed

The return of the Mars sample is a multi-missing campaign designed to restore the nuclei that will be removed in the coming year. At the moment is at the stage of concept design and technology development, the campaign is one of the most ambitious efforts in the history of space, which involves various spaces, various releases and dozens of government agencies.

“Collecting samples from Mars has been a priority for the planet’s scientific community since the 1980s, and the potential opportunity to accomplish this goal has finally sparked an influx of creativity,” said Michael Meyer, executive director of programs. NASA Mars exploration at NASA headquarters. In Washington.

This image shows a concept for a number of future robots that will work together to collect samples that NASA has collected from the surface of Mars that the Persevere you rover has collected.

Benefits of study

The benefit of analyzing the samples again on earth, rather than the task assigned to a Rover on the surface of Mars, is that scientists can use many different types of advanced laboratory technology that can be used too large and complex to Mars. And they can export much faster analyzes in the laboratory, while providing much more information or living in Mars.

“I dreamed of ‘muted monsters since I was a graduate student,” said Meenakshi Wadhwa, head of the Mars sample Return program, administered by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

Collecting these documented samples will eventually make it possible to analyze them in the best laboratories in the world on their return. “

Solar System except the earth?

The return of the Monster Mars’s will maintain some first destined to solve an open question: Is life in the root of life anywhere in the solar system except the earth?

Glavin is helping to develop systems that protect samples on their way from Mars to Earth from contamination by Mars.

The return of the Mars monster was developed with the European Space Agency (ESA) and requires the independent launch of a very valuable rocket. load of the Mars surface. The engineers will have to make sure that the rocket track matches that of a spacecraft that Mars or the sample capsule can convey to the Orbiter.

The Orbiter will then return the capsule of the sample to earth, where scientists will expect it to contain it safely before it is transported to a safe installation of Biohazard, one now in development. Before scientists and engineers bring signs of Mars to earth, they have to overcome several challenges.

Here’s a look at one: the collection of Mars samples and returning to Earth will be a historic company starting with the launch of NASA’s Perseverance Rover on July 30, 2020. Perseverance picked up his first samples of Rock Core September 2021. Protection of the country of Mars.

Maintaining chemically pure samples for a comprehensive investigation on earth, while subjecting its storage holder to extreme sterilization measures to ensure it is nothing dangerous at Earth, it is a task that makes the return of the Mars sample Not really without version.

Thousands of millions of years ago, the red planet might have had a cozy atmosphere for life that thrives in hot and humid conditions. However, it is unlikely that NASA would send live agency samples to Mars based on decades of data from Mars orbiters, landings, and rovers.

Instead, scientists expect to find petrified organic matter or other signs of the old microbial life. Despite the low risk of performing anything that floats life to earth, an abundance of caution NASA so that their important steps to ensure that Marcian samples remain safe sealed during their journey.

After gathering the rock cores in Jezero, and put it in tubes made in a large part of titanium, one of the strongest metals in the world, perseverance seals firmly the tubes to even prevent the smallest particle from which by accident released.

The tubes are then kept in the rover’s abdomen until NASA decides where to launch them at that pointA sample return campaign will include a sample recovery Rover of the ESA that will be launched from Earth after this decade to this by perseverance collected samples. Engineers at the Glenn Research Center of NASA in Cleveland, Ohio, design the wheels for Rover Search.

The Rover will transfer samples to a Lander, which is developed in JPL. A robotic arm in the Lander would place the monsters at the point of a rocket, designed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

The first sample of Mars with a core is visible (middle) in a tube of collection of titanium samples herein of the camera of the sample system and the closet of NASA perseverance (known as Cache camera). The photo was taken on September 6, 2021 (the day of the Sun or Mars of the 194 mission), before the system is attached and sealed a metal cover to the tube.

The rocket will start the monster capsule to Mars orbit, where an orbiter of it will expect to receive it. This preparation consists of sealing the sample capsule in a clean container to contain all the marine material, sterilize the seal and use a robotic arm developed in Goddard to place the sealed container in a soil camps.

Places before traveling back to earth. One of the most important tasks for NASA engineers is figuring out how to seal and sterilize a sample container without removing the big chemical companies in the rock core.

One of the techniques the team at the moment is the test is welding, which involves melting an alloy in a liquid that is essentially sticks in metal. The strong welding allows the sample container to be sealed at a temperature high enough to sterilize any substance that steriles in seam.

One of the biggest technical challenges we are currently facing is the molten metal centimeter at around 1000 ° C (or 538 ° C) that we must adhere to. extraordinary Mars samples under the hottest temperature they would have experienced in Mars.

It is about 86 degrees Celsius (30 degrees Celsius), “said Brendan Feehan, the Goddard Systems Engineer for the system that will catch, contain and deliver the monsters to the earth on board the ESA.

Cautious design and colleagues

Feehan’s cautious design and colleagues allow the heat to apply only when it is necessary to weld, limit the flow of heat to the samples. In addition, engineers can isolate the monsters in a material that absorbs the heat and then install it very slowly, or can drivers install the heat away from the samples.

Glavin said any technique the team develops will be important not only for Martian samples, but also for future sample return emissions to Europe or Enceladus. we can collect and bring fresh samples of the sea feathers that may be live Alien agencies contain. So we do it. “I need to find out.”

Strict efforts NASA’s to dating the risk

Strict efforts NASA’s to dating the risk of harmful pollution of the Earth back to the International External Space Treaty of 1967, which calls on the nations to prevent heavenly bodies that are infected with soil agencies, and to prevent The contamination of the country to prevent return Samples.

To safely return an example of Mars to Earth, NASA is doing not only, but also at least 19 departments and government agencies of the United States, including US centers. For the control and prevention of diseases and the Department of Home Affairs of the United States. Safety.

What is the proposed mars sample return missions

Mars Sample Return is a scheduled mission to send samples from the surface of Mars to Earth. The mission uses a robotic system and a Martian takeoff rocket to collect samples of Martian rocks, soil, and atmosphere and send them to Earth for detailed chemical and physical analysis. The mission is planned with the European Space Agency.

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