NASA revises Mars sample return plan to use helicopters

On Wednesday, NASA introduced that it had made main modifications to its plan to return samples from the floor of Mars within the early 2030s. At present collected by the Perseverance rover, the samples are anticipated to be moved to Earth by a rover and rocket relay. Now, impressed by the success of the Ingenuity helicopter, NASA says it could lose one of many rovers, changing it with a pair of helicopters as a substitute.

The plan to return the samples from Mars includes quite a lot of challenges, however one of many principal ones is that the samples are at present in Perseverance, however should ultimately find yourself in a rocket that takes off from the floor of Mars. Because of this Perseverance should get shut sufficient to the rocket touchdown web site – which we will not select exactly – to swap the samples, presumably diverting it from scientific functions. It additionally can’t be too shut when the rocket lands since touchdown the rocket and its related {hardware} may pose a danger to the rover and its samples.

The unique plan included a contingency. The perseverance would method after the rocket landed and the samples could be transferred immediately. If that did not work for some purpose, a second rover despatched to Mars by ESA would act as a go-between, visiting a web site the place the samples had been cached, retrieving them, after which delivering them to the rocket.

Within the new plan, this second rover has been eradicated. As a substitute? Two helicopters. These will probably be delivered as a part of the identical payload because the rocket carrying the samples into orbit. In consequence, the brand new plan includes just one lander (past the one which delivered Perseverance) that may carry each the rocket and the helicopters, vastly lowering the danger of the general plan.

These helicopters, naturally, will probably be primarily based on the design of Ingenuity, which was despatched to Mars as a check car and much exceeded expectations, finishing 29 flights in a yr. Given this expertise, NASA is assured that helicopters could be designed to hold small payloads and doubtlessly make a number of flights between the return rocket and the place the samples are, both on Perseverance or in a location cache.

After that, the plan stays the identical. The samples will probably be loaded right into a container positioned on the Mars Ascent Car designed by NASA to move them into orbit. There, the container will probably be transferred to the Earth Return Orbiter, constructed by ESA, which can deliver them again to Earth in 2033, when they may fall into the ambiance to be recovered and studied.

The subsequent step will probably be approval by ESA, after which the 2 companies will start the preliminary design part, which can deal with all the main points of the assorted automobiles that will probably be wanted. In the meantime, Perseverance has already collected about ten samples from the floor of the purple planet.