Design of the European Mars Sample Return Mission
- Paper number
IAC-07-A3.3.08
- Author
Mr. Michael Khan, Germany
- Year
2007
- Abstract
In the framework of the Aurora program, ESA is planning a mission to return up to 500 grams of sample material from the Mars surface, subsurface and atmosphere to Earth for further analysis. This very ambitious mission involves numerous elements that will be launched sequentially by two Ariane 5 heavy lift launch vehicles: • (1) Orbiter and Earth Return Vehicle (ERV), together with the equipment required for rendezvous, docking and sample container handling. This spacecraft will also act as relay during surface operations • (2) Descent Module (DM) and Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) together with all equipment required for sample extraction on the Mars surface. The mission design aims at maximizing the mission robustness. The orbiter vehicle must be launched first and will be well under way when the DM+MAV composite is launched. The DM+MAV is transferred to Mars on a carrier vehicle and will enter the atmosphere from hyperbolic approach, effecting a controlled soft landing within a narrow dispersion ellipse surrounding the target landing site, which still awaits selection. Surface operations during the Mars global dust storm season are avoided; all operations starting entry, descent and landing up launch from the Mars surface will be supported by the Orbiter+ERV composite whose orbit is optimized for this purpose. After rendezvous with the Orbiter+ERV and transfer of the sample container to the Earth Return Capsule (ERC) carried by the ERV, the ERV will prepare for the opening of the return window and inject itself onto the Earth return trajectory. When approaching the Earth, the ERC will be finely targeted for re-entry and, upon landing, be retrieved as soon as possible and transferred to a sample analysis facility. Baseline and backup mission scenarii have been designed which feature a similar performance and a mission duration of 5-7 years between the first launch and the ERC re-entry.
Authors: Andrea Santovincenzo - European Space Agency ESA - European Space Technology Centre ESTEC, Robert-Bosch Str. 5, D-64293 Darmstadt, Germany Michael Khan, Jose-Manuel Sánchez Pérez - European Space Agency ESA - European Space Operations Centre ESOC, Robert-Bosch Str. 5, D-64293 Darmstadt, Germany
- Abstract document