Another sample-return mission, Mars 5M (Mars-79), planned for 1979, was cancelled due to complexity and technical problems. The Soviet Union considered a Mars sample-return mission, Mars 5NM, in 1975 but it was cancelled due to the repeated failures of the N1 rocket that would have launched it. One early concept was the Sample Collection for Investigation of Mars (SCIM) proposal, which involved sending a spacecraft in a grazing pass through Mars's upper atmosphere to collect dust and air samples without landing or orbiting.
įor at least three decades, scientists have advocated the return of geological samples from Mars. The density of the Mars atmosphere remained unknown at that time, so the Lockheed engineering author reported the analysis of trajectory options over a range of aerodynamic drag conditions for a 15-ton launch vehicle to reach a rendezvous orbit.Īt NASA, returning samples from Mars was studied jointly by the Langley Research Center and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the early 1970s during the time that the Viking Mars lander mission was in development, and a Langley author noted that the "Mars surface-to-orbit launch vehicle" would need high performance because its mass would "have a substantial impact on the mass and systems requirements" for earlier mission phases, delivery of that vehicle to Mars and launch preparations on Mars. Returning from Mars appeared in technical literature when Apollo was still in development and the first spacecraft to fly past Mars had not yet launched, with an expectation that people would be on board for Mars ascent. See also: NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return § History Before 1990 History Artist concept of a Mars sample-return mission, 1993 These meteorites are believed to be from Mars because their elemental and isotopic compositions are similar to rocks and atmospheric gases analyzed on Mars. As of April 2019, 266 meteorites had been identified as Martian, out of over 61,000 known meteorites. One source of Mars samples is what are thought to be Martian meteorites, which are rocks ejected from Mars that made their way to Earth.
Moreover, it was reported that a significant fraction of the investigations could not be meaningfully advanced without returned samples.
In 2008, they concluded that about half of the investigations "could be addressed to one degree or another by MSR", making MSR "the single mission that would make the most progress towards the entire list" of investigations. In 2006, the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group identified 55 important investigations related to Mars exploration. Samples may be reanalyzed in the future by instruments that do not yet exist. Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington, expect such studies to allow several new discoveries at many fields. Once returned to Earth, stored samples can be studied with the most sophisticated science instruments available. Scientific value Mars meteorites in the Natural History Museum in Vienna
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