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Well, it’s a mocked-up illustration of the container that has been released by the U.S. space agency. And, to be precise, the mission will be carried out with the European Space Agency (ESA), too.
NASA writes:
“This illustration shows the proposed Capture, Containment, and Return System, a NASA payload on the European Space Agency’s Earth Return Orbiter. As part of the Mars Sample Return Campaign, samples collected by NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover would be launched into Mars orbit within sealed tubes inside an Orbiting Sample container. The Earth Return Orbiter would then rendezvous with this container, and the Capture, Containment, and Return System would be tasked with capturing the Orbiting Sample container, orienting it, sterilizing its exterior, and transferring it into a clean zone for secondary containment, toward safe return to Earth.”
You can read more about the mission at mars.nasa.gov/msr/
Basically, the two agencies are planning ways to bring the first samples of Mars material back to Earth for full, detailed study.
Initially, it’s anticipated that the Mars Perseverance rover will be the first leg of this “international interplanetary relay team”. It will collect and cache samples on Mars.
A Sample Return Lander would then land near or in Jezero Crater, bringing a small rocket on which the samples collected by Perseverance would then be loaded. Note that, two Ingenuity-like helicopters could provide a secondary capability to retrieve samples on the surface of Mars.
Once the sample cache is launched off the planet, another spacecraft would then capture it in Mars orbit, and then bring it back to Earth safely. Some time in the early to mid 2030s…
Nasa explains the reason for all this amazing effort:
“These first collected and returned samples could answer a key question: did life ever exist on Mars? Only by bringing the samples back can we truly answer the question by using the most sophisticated, state-of-the-art labs, at a time when future generations can study them using techniques yet to be invented.”
We wish them good luck!
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