[ad_1]
Keeping a pristine piece of Mars in a laboratory on Earth is among the most ambitious dreams of planetary scientists, and NASA and its European counterpart want to make the dream a reality.
It’s worth it, but it won’t be easy, an independent group of experts which has spent two months carefully studying existing plans, says in a new report to NASA. That report offers 44 findings and 44 recommendations intended to identify and mitigate weaknesses in current plans and bureaucratic systems related to the mission, all warning that the mission may still miss its current planning costs and objectives. You can read the report here (PDF).
“We unanimously believe that the Mars Sample Return Program it should proceed; we think its scientific value will be extraordinarily high, with the potential for world-changing discoveries about Earth’s closest planetary neighbor, and possibly an independent origin of life on another world, “David Thompson, chair of the review board independent and former chairman of the commercial space company Orbital ATK (now part of Northrop Grumman Space Systems), said during a press conference held on Tuesday (November 10). “However, as the first round trip mission to another planet, the return of the champion of Mars is also extremely ambitious. , technically demanding and operationally complex program. “
In the pictures: NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover mission to the red planet
Although the board has found that the next crucial spacecraft in the mission may be able to launch in 2026, such as NASA and the European space agency (ESA) currently hopes that the next launch window, which is in 2028, may be more likely. NASA plans to continue targeting the previous launch date and delay the line if necessary, the agency’s leadership pointed out.
“Basically, the way we interpret the collective set of recommendations is in full swing,” Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA Associate Administrator for Science, said at the news conference. “The last thing we want to do is flip a switch right now, without really investigating this and looking at all the options.”
The board also suggested that given the potential delay and other factors, a safer bet would be to budget between $ 3.8 billion and $ 4.4 billion, perhaps 30% more than the number NASA is currently holding. using.
An ambitious project
NASA created the independent review committee in August to evaluate close-ups for the largest suite of sample return missions to Mars and identify potential problems as soon as possible.
As expected, the Mars Sample Return Program is a vast effort shared by two large space agencies that will require several separate spacecraft operating for more than a decade, not to mention the first rocket launch from the Red Planet’s surface and a series of measures to prevent contamination of samples.
The report focuses on future aspects of the mission related to space flight: how Perseverance and his staff will interact with future missions, what those spacecraft will look like and the complicated process of getting that precious cargo safely off the surface of Mars and into laboratories on Earth. (The mission will also require a new champion care facility, which the council has not evaluated.)
Exploring Mars is never easy. The Red Planet is known for its difficult launch calendar, with favorable opportunities spaced 26 months apart, slow communications and dangerous landing conditions.
“Every mission to Mars has things we are concerned about,” Jeffrey Gramling, director of NASA’s Mars Sample Return program, said at the press conference.
NASA and ESA are also hoping to launch the mission while the Perseverance Mars 2020 rover, currently on its way to the Red Planet, is still operational. The rover will land on Mars on February 18 and will work on the surface of the Red Planet for at least one Martian year (687 Earth days), although many of NASA’s robotic explorers have remained active much longer than the duration of their primary mission.
And it’s not like NASA has a lot of free time on their hands: the agency’s two key spacecraft manufacturing centers have their hands full with other ambitious projects like the James Webb is Roman space telescopes e Europe Clipper mission. So the review committee recommends a number of measures to ensure NASA carefully shares work between its centers and can build on previous experience.
“The only reason we did this is to increase our chances of success by opening our eyes,” Zurbuchen said of the independent review process. “I want us to really challenge each other for missions, but we want to do it every time by keeping our eyes open and learning from every opportunity we have.”
Related: A brief history of the missions to Mars
Devil in the details
Many of the report’s recommendations are deeply bureaucratic, such as considering how work is shared between the different NASA centers, which are working on many other projects, and organizing ways to host NASA and ESA personnel in the facilities there. ‘of each other.
The council also recommended changes to the management of the Mars 2020 mission. Oversight of the rover could be incorporated into a larger sample return program to Mars instead of waiting for future missions to be underway; another would see sample performance-related activities prioritized over other possible Perseverance jobs.
Another problem that emerged in the report was questions about whether NASA and ESA had fully explored all of their options for the most successful design of specific parts of the mission. The sample recovery rover, for example, is European / Russian based ExoMars rover scheduled for launch in 2022, but could benefit from further mobility improvements, for example. Currently, all planned surface missions are designed to be solar powered, but adding nuclear power could make the mission less vulnerable.
And the report notes that beyond the bewildering complexity of the sample’s attempt to return to Mars, it’s not open to much of what NASA jargon calls “descoping” – essentially, corners that can be cut along the way if a mission is to. addressing budget or program deficiencies.
One of the few measures agencies could use if the effort were cornered would be to delay the launch of one or more of the mission’s next spacecraft, which NASA and ESA are tentatively targeting for 2026. .
The next Mars launch opportunity comes in 2028, but after that and things get complicated. If surface missions enter 2030, the major components of the project will need to be overhauled, independent review board member Peter Theisinger of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California said at the press conference. “The conditions when you get to Mars change drastically during the Martian year, “Theisinger said.” The launch opportunities after 2028 are not coming to a very interesting season. “
But despite all the complications, bringing Martian rocks to Earth is it was worth it, the board is confident. “The science would be very exciting,” Maria Zuber, a review board member and planetary scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said at the press conference.
“We did a lot of in situ analyzes with Mars rocks on the surface of Mars, and clearly those were very valuable,” he said. “But what can you do with a rock that brings her back and works in a terrestrial laboratory … [the samples] it will produce a timeline essentially of the history of what was happening in this crater. “
Email Meghan Bartels at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
Source link
