Europe moves forward despite American uncertainty

While budgetary uncertainty hangs over the American Mars sample return mission, the European Space Agency (ESA), which is participating in the project, continues to move forward. The probe responsible for retrieving samples from Martian orbit and bringing them back to Earth has just successfully passed its design review.

Mars sample return mission on hold

There Mars Sample Return Mission (MSR) has the ambitious goal of returning samples of Martian rock and dust to Earth. The Perseverance rover, currently active in Jezero Crater, represents the first step in this historic mission. However, delays and cost overruns have hampered the progress of the project and raised questions about its financial and time viability. To overcome the challenges faced by the MSR program, NASA is now adopting an innovative approach. Instead of persisting with traditional methods, the American space agency is exploring bold alternatives to find innovative ideas and cost-effective solutions. Its goal is clear: to put the MSR back on a more promising and efficient trajectory. To do this, NASA is even considering collaborate with private companies in order to leverage their expertise and technological resources.

ESA moves forward despite everything

The European Space Agency (ESA) plays a crucial role in this mission, in collaboration with NASA. Its main contribution lies in the design and construction of the vessel responsible for recovering the samples Martians in orbit around Mars and bring them back to Earth. In detail, the Earth Return Orbiter (ERO) will be equipped with a capture system and containers to secure the samples before their return journey to Earth. The capture and containment module, also designed by ESA, is a key component of ERO. It will be responsible for securing the samples as they are transferred from the Mars Ascent Vehicle (or MAV, the small rocket that takes off from the Martian surface with the samples and places them in orbit) to the orbiter. This module must ensure that the samples remain intact and free of contamination throughout the return journey.
Technical qualification model of the Remote Interface Unit (RIU) for the return-to-Earth orbiter. The RIU connects most of the spacecraft’s equipment to the main computer. It is a replica of the flight model used for testing in Martian conditions. Credits: Airbus/ESA As far as its development is concerned, the spacecraft has just pass successfully the design review that validated its technical details and moved the project to the manufacturing and testing phase, despite the budgetary uncertainty surrounding the mission. Many design changes could indeed be necessary in the near future, hoping that the work of the Europeans is not impacted. On this point, ESA remains confident and assures that the configuration of its spacecraft is flexible enough to adapt to any new architecture.