American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, December 9-13, 2019
Session ID: 81113
Session Title: Mars Sample Return: Balancing the Benefits of a New Phase of Mars Exploration Against Potential Risks to Earth, While Communicating Both to the Public
Section: Planetary Sciences
In a mission sequence beginning in 2020, NASA and partners plan to assemble martian samples for possible future return, potentially exposing the Earth to relatively fresh material from Mars. Mars samples will be scientifically selected, and stored there for later pick-up. Sample-return mission partners are studying a joint endeavor that would open Mars as a two-way field site for further study. This session will examine a future Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign, with NASA as systems architect and the lead on an MSR Lander (SRL) mission, and ESA as the lead on an MSR Orbiter mission, providing a Sample Fetch Rover and the Sample Transfer Arm for the SRL. The NASA-provided Sample Capture, Handling, and Containment system and Earth Entry Vehicle would be mounted on the Orbiter, and with a sample receiving facility will be essential to protecting the Earth from sample-exposure risks. Effective public communication will be essential to mission success.
Please consider submitting to this session and feel free to pass the information along to anyone you think might be interested. Abstracts are due by July 31, 23:59 EDT.
For full session description, please visit:
https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm19/prelim.cgi/Session/81113