NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return

The NASA-ESA Mars sample-return (MSR) mission is a proposed Mars Sample Return mission to collect martian rock and soil samples in 43 small, cylindrical, pencil-sized, titanium tubes and return them to Earth around 2033. This ~9 billion USD proposal will allow more extensive analysis than that being done by martian spacecrafts.

Although this NASA and ESA's proposal is still in the design stage as of December 2022, the first leg of gathering samples is currently being executed by the Perseverance rover.

Mars 2020 mission

Mapping Perseverance's samples collected to date (The 10 duplicate samples to be left behind at Three Forks Sample Depot are framed in green colour.)

Facsimiles of Perseverance's sample tubes at JPL in Southern California

In support of the NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return, rock, regolith (Martian soil), and atmosphere samples are being cached by Perseverance. As of October 2023, 27 out of 43 sample tubes have been filled, including 8 igneous rock samples, 12 sedimentary rock sample tubes, a Silica-cemented carbonate rock sample tube, two regolith sample tubes, an atmosphere sample tube, and three witness tubes. Before launch, 5 of the 43 tubes were designated "witness tubes" and filled with materials that would capture particulates in the ambient environment of Mars. Out of 43 tubes, 3 witness sample tubes will not be returned to Earth and will remain on rover as the sample canister will only have 30 tube slots. Further, 10 of the 43 tubes are left as backups at the Three Forks Sample Depot.

Perseverance rover's sampling bits

• The pointed one with two windows on left is Regolith drill
• the two shorter ones on left are Abrasion tools
• the rest in center are Rock drills

The Mars 2020 mission landed the Perseverance rover in Jezero crater in February 2021. It collected multiple samples and packed them into cylinders for later return. Jezero appears to be an ancient lakebed, suitable for ground sampling.

In the beginning of August 2021, Perseverance made its first attempt to collect a ground sample by drilling out a finger-size core of Martian rock. This attempt did not succeed. A drill hole was produced, as indicated by instrument readings, and documented by a photograph of the drill hole. However, the sample container turned out to be empty, indicating that the rock sampled was not robust enough to produce a solid core.

A second target rock judged to have a better chance to yield a sufficiently robust sample was sampled at the end of August and the beginning of September 2021. After abrading the rock, cleaning away dust by puffs of pressurized nitrogen, and inspecting the resulting rock surface, a hole was drilled on September 1. A rock sample appeared to be in the tube, but it was not immediately placed in a container. A new procedure of inspecting the tube optically was performed. On September 6, the process was completed and the first sample placed in a container.

From December 21, 2022, Perseverance started as campaign to deposit 10 of its collected samples to the backup depot, Three Forks.

List of samples cached

Sample Tube Status

  Left At Three Forks Sample Depot

  Will be left At Three Forks Sample Depot

  Remain stoved in the Rover

Sample Details
Sampling Attempt	Date	Tube No.	Seal No.	Ferrule Prefix	Ferrule No.	Contents	Sample Name and Image during Caching	Sample Depot Deposit Date, Spot and Image	Rock Name	Core Length	Estimated Martian Atmosphere Headspace Gas	Location	Notes
1	22 June 2021 (Sol 121)	SN061	SN147	10464848-7	SN090	Witness Tube (Empty)	WB-1		N/A	N/A	2.2 x 10−6 mol	North Séítah Unit	This was taken as a dry-run in preparation for later sampling attempts, and did not aim to sample a rock. During final pre-launch activities, this witness tube was activated (the inner seal was punctured to begin accumulation) and placed in the Bit Carousel. This tube will therefore have accumulated contaminants for the entire duration of exposure from a few months before launch through cruise and EDL until it was sealed on the surface of Mars. Given its long exposure, it is likely that the inner surfaces of WB1 will be saturated with organic contaminants, i.e., they will be in adsorption equilibrium with theirimmediate surroundings in the rover (and or the entire spacecraft prior to landing). WB1 is therefore expected to have higher concentrations of contaminants, and potentially different contaminants, than the sample tubes.
2	6 August 2021 (Sol 165)	SN233	SN025	10464848-7	SN062	Atmospheric Gas	Roubion (failed attempt of caching rock sample)		Roubion 18.42767°N 77.45167°E / 18.42767; 77.45167	N/A	4.9x10−6 mol	Polygon Valley, Cratered Floor Fractured Rough Unit	Attempted to sample the rock but did not succeed, as they didn't reach the bit carousel and the caching system stored and sealed an empty tube. However, in this process, it collected atmospheric samples.
3	6 September 2021 (Sol 195)	SN266	SN170	10464848-6	SN099	Basalt (or possibly basaltic sandstone) Rock Sample	Montdenier		Rochette 18.43074°N 77.44433°E / 18.43074; 77.44433	5.98 cm (2.35 in)	1.2x10−6 mol	Arturby Ridge, Citadelle, South Séítah Unit	Successful sample.
4	8 September 2021 (Sol 197)	SN267	SN170	10464848-6	SN074	Basalt (or possibly basaltic sandstone) Rock Sample	Montagnac		Rochette 18.43074°N 77.44433°E / 18.43074; 77.44433	6.14 cm (2.42 in)	1.3x10−6 mol	Arturby Ridge, Citadelle, South Séítah Unit	Sampled from same rock as previous sample.
5	15 November 2021 (Sol 263)	SN246	SN194	10464848-5	SN107	Olivine cumulate Rock Sample	Salette		Brac 18.43398°N 77.44305°E / 18.43398; 77.44305	6.28 cm (2.47 in)	1.1 x10−6 mol	Brac Outcrop, South Séítah Unit
6	24 November 2021 (Sol 272)	SN284	SN219	10464848-6	SN189	Olivine cumulate Rock Sample	Coulettes		Brac 18.43398°N 77.44305°E / 18.43398; 77.44305	3.30 cm (1.30 in)	2.5 x10−6 mol	Brac Outcrop, South Séítah Unit
7	22 December 2021 (Sol 299)	SN206	SN184	10464848-7	SN064	Olivine cumulate Rock Sample	Robine		Issole 18.43264°N 77.44134°E / 18.43264; 77.44134	6.08 cm (2.39 in)	1.0 x10−6 mol	Issole, South Séítah Unit
8	29 December 2021 (Sol 307)	SN261	SN053	10464848-6	SN062	Olivine cumulate Rock Sample	Pauls (Abandoned sample from this site due to Core Bit Dropoff.)	21 December 2022 (Sol 653) at Three Forks Sample Spot "1"	Issole 18.43264°N 77.44134°E / 18.43264; 77.44134	N/A	N/A	Issole, South Séítah Unit	Pebble-sized debris from the first sample fell into the bit carousel during transfer of the coring bit, which blocked the successful caching of the sample. It was decided to abandon this sample and do a second sampling attempt again. Subsequent tests and measures cleared remaining samples in tube and debris in caching system The tube was reused for second sample attempt, which was successful. It was the first sample tube to be deposited at a Sample Depot (in this case the depot is Three Forks).
9	31 January 2022 (Sol 338)						Malay (During Caching)			3.07 cm (1.21 in)	2.7 x10−6 mol
10	7 March 2022 (Sol 372)	SN262	SN172	10464848-6	SN129	Basaltic Andesite Rock Sample	Ha'ahóni (aka "Hahonih")		Sid 18.45242°N 77.44386°E / 18.45242; 77.44386	6.50 cm (2.56 in)	0.98 x10−6mol	Ch’ał outcrop(100 m (330 ft) east of Octavia E. Butler Landing), Séítah Unit
11	13 March 2022 (Sol 378)	SN202	SN168	no Cachecam images	SN074	Basaltic Andesite Rock Sample	Atsá (aka "Atsah")		Sid 18.45242°N 77.44386°E / 18.45242; 77.44386	6.00 cm (2.36 in)	1.3 x10−6 mol	Ch’ał outcrop(100 m (330 ft) east of Octavia E. Butler Landing), Séítah Unit
12	7 July 2022 (Sol 491)		SN188	10464848-4	SN101	Sedimentary Rock Sample	Swift Run		Skinner Ridge 18.40617°N 77.45893°E / 18.40617; 77.45893	6.69 cm (2.63 in)		Skinner Ridge, Delta Front	First Deltaic and First sedimentary sample cached by Perseverance.
13	12 July 2022 (Sol 496)		SN192	10464848-6	SN068	Sedimentary Rock Sample	Skyland		Skinner Ridge 18.40617°N 77.45893°E / 18.40617; 77.45893	5.85 cm (2.30 in)		Skinner Ridge, Delta Front
14	16 July 2022 (Sol 499)	SN205	SN110	10464848-6	SN170	Witness Tube (Empty)	N/A		N/A	N/A		Hogwallow Flats, Delta Front	This maybe done to clean out any leftover debris during the previous sampling attempts.
15	27 July 2022 (Sol 510)	SN172		10464848-7	SN099	Sedimentary Rock Sample	Hazeltop		Wildcat Ridge 18.40589°N 77.45863°E / 18.40589; 77.45863	5.97 cm (2.35 in)		Wildcat Ridge, Delta Front
16	3 August 2022 (Sol 517)	SN259	SN177	10464848-5	SN110	Sedimentary Rock Sample	Bearwallow		Wildcat Ridge 18.40589°N 77.45863°E / 18.40589; 77.45863	6.24 cm (2.46 in)		Wildcat Ridge, Delta Front
17	2 October 2022 (Sol 575)	SN264		10464848-5	SN085		Shuyak		Amalik outcrop 77.40144°N 18.45073°E / 77.40144; 18.45073	5.55 cm (2.19 in)		Amalik outcrop, Delta Front
18	6 October 2022 (Sol 579) - 16 November 2022 (Sol 589)	SN184	SN587	10464848-4	SN030	Sedimentary rock sample	Mageik	23 December 2022 (Sol 655) at Three Forks Sample Spot "2"	Amalik outcrop 77.40144°N 18.45073°E / 77.40144; 18.45073	7.36 cm (2.90 in)		Amalik outcrop, Delta Front	The anomaly first appeared on Oct. 5 after the successful coring of the mission's 14th sample, called “Mageik,” when the seal assigned to cap the rock-core-filled sample tube did not release as expected from its dispenser. The process of sealing a sample happens in the rover's Sampling and Caching System. During sealing, a small robotic arm moves the rock-core-filled tube to one of seven dispensers and presses its open end against a waiting seal. On the 17 previous occasions when a sample tube had been sealed during the mission, the seal was pressed fully into the tube. That allowed the seal to be extracted from the dispenser and the arm to move the seal-tube combination to a different station where they are pressed together, creating a hermetic seal. However, when the sample handling system attempted to dispense a seal in the tube of the Mageik sample, the seal encountered too much resistance and did not come free. The sampling system automatically detected the lack of seal and stored the unsealed tube safely so the tube and sample hardware remain in a stable configuration. One of the possible causes of the seal's nondeployment may be that Martian dust adhered to a location on the tube's interior surface where the dust could impede successful coupling and extraction. To ensure a hermetic seal, the tolerances between tube and seal are, by necessity, extremely small: 0.00008 inches (0.002 mm). The rover's CacheCam captured images showing light deposits of dust on the tube's lip, but the camera's imaging capabilities along the tube's inner surface are quite limited. Sealing which was tried again and again with finally completing it on on 16 November 2022 (Sol 589) successfully.
19	14 October 2022 (Sol 586)	SN188	SN153	10464848-5	SN073	Witness Tube (Empty)	N/A		N/A	N/A		Amalik outcrop, Delta Front	The witness tubes do not collect samples but are opened near the sampling location to "witness" the martian environment. The witness tubes go through the motions of sample collection without collecting rock or soil samples and are sealed and cached like martian samples. Witness tubes aim to ensure that any potential Earth contaminants are detected during sample collection. This is to provide the validity of the samples once returned to Earth for analysis. The witness tube was successfully sealed on Sol 586 (October 14, 2022) and placed into storage on Sol 591 (October 19, 2022).
20	24 November 2022 (Sol 627) - 29 November 2022 (Sol 632)	SN242	SN151	10464848-5	SN113	Sedimentary Rock Sample	Kukaklek		Hidden Harbor			Hidden Harbor, Delta Front	First Sample from an abrasion patch, abraded earlier on the rock. It was sampled on 29 November 2022 (Sol 632)
21	2 December 2022 (Sol 635)			10464848-5	SN-063	Regolith Sand Sample, likely containing mixed sedimentary and igneous grains	Atmo Mountain		Observation Mountain			Observation Mountain, Delta Front	First Regolith Sample.
22	7 November 2022 (Sol 640)		SN191	10464848-6	SN-106	Regolith Sand Sample, likely containing mixed sedimentary and igneous grains	Crosswind Lake		Observation Mountain			Observation Mountain, Delta Front
Sample and Depot Overview					Type Of Cached Samples				Drilled Holes			Sample Depot at Three Forks
Samples Tubes Cached  (49%) 43 21 Samples Tubes Left At Three Forks Sample Depot  (20%) 10 2									All Drilled Holes On Mars By Perseverance (except Atsá sample) (Scrollable image)			Mars Sample Depot at 3 forks
Sources:

Three Forks Sample Depot

After nearly a martian year of NASA's Perseverance Mars rover's science and sample caching operations for MSR campaign, the rover will now deposit first of ten samples that it has cached from beginning as NASA aims to eventually return them to Earth starting from 19 December 2022. The depot will serve as a backup if Perseverance cannot deliver its samples. Perseverance will deposit the samples at a relatively flat terrain known as Three Forks so that NASA and ESA could recover them in its successive missions in the MSR campaign. It is even selected as the landing spot for the Sample Retrieval Lander. It is a relatively benign place. It is as flat and smooth as a table top.

Testing a Sample Drop in the Mars Yard with VSTB OPTIMISM Rover

Perseverance's complex Sampling and Caching System takes almost an hour to retrieve the metal tube from inside the rover's belly, view it one last time with its internal Cachecam, and drop the sample ~0.89 m (2 ft 11 in) onto a carefully selected patch of Martian surface.

The tubes will not be piled up at a single spot. Instead, each tube-drop location will have an “area of operation” ~5.5 m (18 ft) in diameter. To that end, the tubes will be deposited on the surface in an intricate zigzag pattern of 10 spots for 10 tubes, with each sample ~5 m (16 ft) to ~15 m (49 ft) apart from one another near the proposed Sample retrieval lander's landing site. There are various reasons for this plan, biggest for placing them far apart being that is that sample recovery helicopters because they are designed to interact with only one tube at a time. Alongside, they will perform takeoffs and landings, and driving in that spot. To ensure a helicopter could retrieve samples without any problem, the plan to be executed properly and would span over more than two months.

Before and after Perseverance drops each tube, mission controllers will review a multitude of images from the rover's SHERLOCK Watson camera. Images by the SHERLOC WATSON camera are also used to check for surety that the tube had not rolled into the path of the rover's wheels. They also look to ensure the tube had not landed in such a way that it was standing on its end (each tube has a flat end piece called a “glove” to make it easier to be picked up by future missions). That occurred less than 5% of the time during testing with Perseverance's Earthly twin OPTIMISM in JPL's Mars Yard. In case it does happen on Mars, the mission has written a series of commands for Perseverance to carefully knock the tube over with part of the turret at the end of its robotic arm.

A Map of Perseverance's Depot Samples

These SHERLOCK Watson camera images will also give the Mars Sample Return team the precise data necessary to locate the tubes in the event of the samples becoming covered by dust or sand before they are collected.Mars does get windy, but not like on Earth. But the atmosphere on Mars is 100 times less dense than that of Earth’s atmosphere. So winds around here can pick up speed (fastest are Dust devils), but they don’t pick up a lot of dust particles. Martian wind can certainly lift fine dust and leave it on surfaces. But even if significant dust is accumulated these images and depositing pattern will help to recover them back. Even a lucky encounter with a dust devil can even rover dust over the samples as in case with the solar panels of Spirit rover and opportunity rover.

Once this whole task of depositing all the 10 samples is completed, Perseverance will carry on with its mission, traversing to the Crater floor and scaling Delta's summit. The rover be traversing along the edge of the crater and probably, caching more tubes then whilst following the plan of taking single sample at one rock. Till now, several pairs of samples were taken and one samples from pair will be placed at the depot and the other pair will stay on board the rover.

NASA–ESA concept

Mars Sample Return Campaign for bringing Mars Rock Samples Back to Earth

The NASA-ESA plan is to return samples using three missions: a sample collection mission (Perseverance), a sample retrieval mission (Sample Retrieval Lander + Mars ascent vehicle + Sample Transfer arm + 2 Ingenuity class helicopters), and a return mission (Earth Return Orbiter). The mission hopes to resolve the question of whether Mars once harbored life.

Sample collection

The Mars 2020 mission landed the Perseverance rover, which is storing samples to be returned to Earth later. After consideration, it was decided that given Perseverance's expected longevity, it will be the primary means of transporting samples to Sample Retrieval Lander (SRL).

Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover

Sample retrieval

Mars Sample Return Program
(Artwork; 27 July 2022)

The sample retrieval mission involves launching a sample return lander in 2028 with the Mars Ascent Vehicle and two Ingenuity class sample recovery helicopters, both of which will be collecting the samples with a tiny robotic arm as a backup for Perseverance. The rover and helicopters will transport the samples to the SRL lander. SRL's EAS-built sample transfer arm will be used to extract the samples and load them into the Sample Return Capsule in the Ascent Vehicle. It is planned to land near the Octavia E. Butler Landing site in 2029.

Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV)

A mock-up of Mars Ascent Vehicle on display stand

ESA Sample Transfer arm

MAV is a 3 m (9.8 ft) long, two-stage, solid-fueled rocket that will deliver the collected samples from the surface of Mars to the Earth Return Orbiter. Early in 2022, Lockheed Martin was awarded a contract to partner with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in developing the MAV. It is planned to be catapulted into the air just before it ignites, at a rate of 16 feet (5 meters) per second, to remove the odds of wrong liftoff like slipping or tilting of SRL under rocket's shear weight and exhaust at liftoff. This Vertically Ejected Controlled Tip-off Release (VECTOR) system adds a slight rotation during launch, pitching the rocket up and away from the surface. MAV would enter a 380 km orbit. It will remain stowed inside a cylinder on the SRL and will have a thermal protective coating. The rocket's first stage (SRM-1) would be run by a single modified STAR-20 engine burning for 70 seconds, while the second stage (SRM-2) would have a single modified STAR-15G engine burning for another 25 seconds. They would be separated by a coast phase, after which the sample container would be released in orbit. As of early 2022, the second stage is planned to be spin-stabilized to save weight in lieu of active guidance, while the Mars samples will result in an unknown payload mass distribution.

MAV is scheduled to be launched in 2028 on board the SRL lander.

Sample return

Earth Return Orbiter (ERO)

ERO is an ESA-developed spacecraft. It includes the NASA-built Capture and Containment and Return System to rendezvous with the samples delivered by MAV in low Mars orbit (LMO). ERO orbiter is planned to weigh ~6,000 kg (13,000 lb) and has solar arrays that have a wingspan of more than 40 m (130 ft) (these are some of the largest solar panels ever launched into space).

ERO is scheduled to launch on an Ariane 64 rocket in 2027 and arrive at Mars in 2028, using ion propulsion and a separate propulsion element to gradually reach the proper orbit and then rendezvous with the orbiting sample. The MAV's second stage will have a radio beacon that will give controllers the information they need to get the ESA Earth Return Orbiter close enough to the Orbiting Sample to see it through reflective light and capture it for return to earth. The orbiter will retrieve and seal the canisters in orbit and use a NASA-built robotic arm to place the sealed container into an Earth-entry capsule. It will raise its orbit, release the propulsion element, and return to Earth during the 2033 Mars-to-Earth transfer window.

Earth Entry Vehicle (EEV)

The Capture/Containment and Return System (CCRS) would stow the sample in the EEV. EEV would return to Earth and land passively, without a parachute. The desert sand at the Utah Test and Training Range and shock absorbing materials in the vehicle were planned to protect the samples from impact forces. EEV is scheduled to land on Earth in 2033.

Components of the Sample Return Landers

Interior design of MAV, First Extraterrestrial Staging Rocket

MAV exterior design

MAV flight plan

Mars Sample Return 2020-2033 Timeline

Artist's concept of Mars sample return orbiter

cross section of the Earth return orbiter

Earth Return Orbiter

capture and containment system

NASA–ESA gallery

• Potential sample-return landing site (14 April 2022)
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Mars sample-return mission - Sampling Process

Context

MidView

CloseUp

Sample in drill

Sampling drill

Sample Tube 233

Mars sample-return mission – Sample Tubes

Exterior

Interior

CT Scan (animation)

Witness Sample Tube

Mars sample-return mission

Perseverance rover – Sample collection and storage
(animated video; 02:22; 6 February 2020)

Orbiting sample container (concept; 2020)

Inserting sample tubes into the rover

Cleaning sample tubes

Mars sample-return mission (2020; artist's impression)

01. Perseverance rover obtaining samples

02. Perseverance rover storing samples

03. SRL 1 landing pattern

04. SRL unfolded

05. Mars Samples return helicopters deployed by SRL and fetching samples as a backup

06. SRL picking up samples and loading them on MAV for launch

07. Launching from Mars to low Martian Orbit

08. MAV in powered flight after release from vector

09. MAV in coast phase in Low Mars orbit after Main engine cutoff awaiting stage separation and second engine startup

10. Payload Separation thereby Releasing samples for later pickup by the Earth Return Orbiter