The US space agency has begun testing missions to return samples of Mars. NASA is preparing a future lander, the toughest of its kind, to go to Mars.
–
The Perseverance Rover is scanning Mars for samples. These samples are not meant to remain on the rover: they are planned to be returned to our planet. To this end, NASA and the European Space Agency are envisioning very ambitious missions, including sending two spacecraft to Mars within the next decade. The first test has just begun, let him know space agency on December 13, 2021.
The sample return is a campaign called the Mars Sample Return, which will include the probe as well as the launcher:
- An example of a landing unit, which would be The largest and heaviest spacecraft of its kind to go to Mars ”, Describes NASA. The weight should be approx 2.4 tonThis is the weakness of persistence.
- and “Mars Ascent Rover”, which will be ” The first rocket launched from another planet It is a two-story rocket with a length of 2.8 meters.
Perseverance delivered 43 tubes, four of which were filled with boulder and Martian atmosphere. This is the container that NASA wants to bring back to Earth, so that scientists can study it. Explorers can certainly carry onboard instruments for on-site scientific analysis, but their payload is limited. On Earth, researchers can analyze samples with equipment too large for rover to carry.
How was the Mars sample return mission?
Concretely, during this sample return mission, the rover developed by the European Space Agency will be responsible for recovering the tubes stored by Perseverance on the Martian surface. He would then take it to a NASA lander, whose robotic arm would allow the sample to be mounted on top of the rocket (also designed by NASA). The rocket, launched from the probe, will have an appointment in Mars orbit with a European Space Agency spacecraft, to deliver cargo there, which will then begin its journey to Earth.
So the challenge is big. While NASA has solid experience with robotic Mars exploration, NASA has never sent a lander so heavy to the planet, or launched a rocket there — and the only plane that has ever flown on Mars has been the helicopter, the Creativity.
There is no drop stage to reduce the fall
The probe will not be able to land on Mars as the air stork did at the end of its descent. that Lander Loopback Example Since there is no descent stage, it must be able to absorb impact, using retrorockets to slow its trajectory – as was the case with the InSight lander. Hence the interest in dropping a prototype lander, as NASA did in this test: By photographing the fall, engineers observe how the robot’s feet land on the surface, and whether it will be able to ‘land’ on rocks as well as on sand.
Engineers still had work to do, as the prototype tested was only a third the size of the finished ship. It is planned to see how the larger prototype behaves when it crashes.
As for the rocket, NASA hasn’t started testing the launcher itself, but the system is aiming to eject it into the air before it fires up. The test involved launching a 400 kilogram rocket 3.3 meters into the air, recreating Mars’ gravity. During an actual launch on the surface of Mars, the rocket should be launched at a speed of 5 meters per second.
