[meteorite-list] NASA May Alter MSL to Aid Sample Return Mission

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2007 12:34:43 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <200707101934.MAA10661_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn12222-nasa-may-alter-mars-rover-to-aid-sample-return-mission.html

NASA may alter Mars rover to aid sample return mission
Kimm Groshong
New Scientist
09 July 2007
 
NASA may alter the design of its upcoming Mars Science Laboratory rover
so it will not only crush and analyse soil and rocks on the Red Planet,
but will also store samples for a future mission to deliver to Earth.
The possible change could shorten the wait time for a Mars sample return
mission, which a new report ranks as the highest scientific priority for
future Mars missions.

Scientists have been asking for a sample return mission since the 1960s,
but cost, mission complexity and lack of appropriate technology have
prevented any such missions from going forward. Still, they say studying
Martian samples in labs on Earth could teach them much more about the
climate, geochemistry and possibility of past or present life on Mars
than remote studies with robots - even those as capable as the Mars
Exploration Rovers.

That view is highlighted in a new NASA-commissioned report by the US
National Research Council (NRC), which outlines the first comprehensive
strategy devised for the detection of life on Mars since 1995. It
states: "The highest-priority science objective for Mars exploration
must be the analysis of a diverse suite of appropriate samples returned
from carefully selected regions on Mars."

The report suggests using a series of spacecraft for sample return
rather than a single mission, an approach that would reduce the
complexity and weight of each individual probe. In this scenario, one or
more missions could collect and store, or "cache", samples; one could
retrieve a scientifically promising cache and launch it into orbit
around Mars; and a third might then bring the sample back to Earth for
detailed analysis. The report also calls for increased funding from NASA
to develop the technology needed for such missions.

Alan Stern, NASA's associate administrator for science, is hoping to
speed up the development of such a programme by seeing if rover missions
already on the drawing board could be altered to perform the first task
of caching samples. He has asked NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)
team to study the feasibility of adding such a capability to the
mega-rover, which is due to launch in 2009 to study whether the planet
could ever have sustained microbial life.

Late addition

He has also started preliminary talks with the European Space Agency
about providing a caching system for ExoMars, a
rover mission scheduled for launch in 2013, though he told New Scientist
that so far ESA has not expressed an opinion on the matter.

At an NRC colloquium on astrobiology and Mars exploration in Pasadena,
California, US, on Sunday, many researchers applauded putting a sample
return programme in the spotlight. But the idea of caching samples on
MSL raised a few eyebrows. For one thing, the rover has already passed
its critical design review - a milestone after which significant mission
design changes are unusual.

"It comes very late in MSL's development," says Bruce Jakosky, a
researcher at the University of Colorado in Boulder, US, and chair of
the NRC committee that put together the astrobiology strategy report.
"We should question whether the astrobiology science objectives can be
addressed by the type of sample MSL can obtain...I'd like to see it
discussed within the community."

Go deeper

Kenneth Nealson of the University of Southern California agrees. He says
some scientists are concerned that the powdery samples MSL will collect
are the most likely to change with atmospheric exposure on the surface.
"It would be more of a technology demonstration," he told New Scientist.
"[Still], one sample is always better than zero."

Another session on the exploration of the Martian subsurface came to the
conclusion that the return of an MSL cache probably would not meet the
requirements to help scientists directly address astrobiological questions.

They said such a mission would be valuable for other areas of scientific
interest, but that any discoveries of possible Martian life would most
likely require a sample collected from the subsurface - probably between
1 and 10 metres down, where samples would be relatively untouched by
oxidising agents at the surface (see Life may lie deep below Martian
surface.
Received on Tue 10 Jul 2007 03:34:43 PM PDT