Mars Sample Return: The Critical Next Step

Paper number

IAC-06-A5.2.02

Author

Mr. Benton C. Clark, Lockheed Martin Space Systems, United States

Year

2006

Abstract

	Before humans trek the mountains and canyons of Mars, a key event must happen. That vital undertaking will be to fly a mission to obtain a suite of representative surface materials and return them to Earth.  Mars Sample Return (MSR) has also been a holy grail of the planetary science community for more than four decades, yet scant progress has been made in its realization.
	Recently, the Stardust mission that returned dust grains from a comet has enlisted the aid of over 150 researchers world-wide, certainly a significantly lesser effort than that likely to be marshaled for assessments of the thousand-fold larger quantity of soils, dust, duricrust, rocks and sediments that will be returned from Mars and studied for composition, particle size, adhesion, compaction, abrasion, triboelectric properties, etc.  Beyond scientific interest, there will be inestimable value for engineering future life support and safety systems.  In the “Safe on Mars” report, a risk was identified concerning chromium-6.  This soluble, carcinogenic state of Cr is relatively rare on Earth, but may be present on Mars because of the highly oxidizing environment.  MER rovers have recently discovered material anomalously high in Cr, and even ordinary martian soils contain measurable concentrations of this and other potentially toxic elements such as Zn and Cu.   
	Not just a threat to astronauts, but also to our planet are life forms that might exist on the red planet.  Although the likelihood of a biohazard risk is thought to be extremely small, the worst-case scenarios could be serious not only to the well-being of our civilizations but to the perception of the responsibility of the space organizations which they have spawned.  Extensive biological testing would be extremely expensive to conduct on Mars, and very difficult to validate. 
	The stark reality is that in the half-century of the space age there has never yet been a roundtrip to Mars.  MSR will validate our collective ability to engineer such a system in absence of the ability for end-to-end testing on Earth.  By monitoring performance of an ascent vehicle from lift-off to insertion using orbital assets at Mars, it will be possible to baseline the future engineering needed to assure safe transport of astronauts up from the martian surface.  
	Finally, embarking on a serious Mars Sample Return mission will provide the confirming signal that a space program is ready and willing to undertake the next quantum step in exploring our solar system.     

Abstract document

IAC-06-A5.2.02.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-06-A5.2.02.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

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