Europe gets its own rover ready for Mars

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Mad about Mars

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Full coverage: "Return to the Red Planet"

International sample return plan
Bringing back the goods from Mars direct to Earth has long been under study by John Rummel, NASA’s Planetary Protection Officer, based at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

"In the development of the sample receiving protocols for a Mars sample return mission, we have worked extensively with the French space agency and other international partners already," Rummel told Space.com.

"We would envision that any Mars sample return mission, by its very nature, would have the consent of a wide spectrum of international partners before we would bring it back and, hopefully, their active cooperation," Rummel said.

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Thanks to the Spirit and Opportunity robots, Rummel added, there’s a much better understanding of what type samples can be shot back to Earth for detailed study. "We now have a much tighter consideration for the sort of sites and broader spectrum of materials that we’re likely to run into," he said.

Crew-crippling problems
But how many robotic sample missions are needed prior to green-lighting the first footfall on Mars?

Before sending people to Mars, NASA-sponsored study teams have been busy identifying biohazard risk, atmospheric risk, radiation risk, dust and surface material risk, terrain/trafficability risk, transit issues, entry, descent and landing questions, concerns about surface operations, and science planning issues.

"If you talk about using sample return missions, in general, to understand the planet better…then of course one is not enough," Kminek said. On the other side of pure science is the knowledge needed to ensure the safety of an expedition from crew-crippling problems on Mars, he said.

There are some hazards on Mars that you can’t identify and characterize with on-the-spot measurements. Samples are necessary, Kminek stated. While science is also needed to identify dangers to human crews, the line between pure science and research required to permit safe passage to Mars of humans isn’t clear at the moment, he said.

"This is not cast in stone … these things still have to be discussed," Kminek said. "On our side, I think we see this sample return mission as more of a precursor mission for later human exploration of Mars. You would be demonstrating that you can launch something from another world … since Apollo," he said.

Testbed for togetherness
Kminek underscored the recent boost to ESA from its highly successful landing of the Huygens probe on Titan, a moon of Saturn. "Everybody recognized that we did a good job. The cooperation was done well between NASA and ESA on the Cassini-Huygens mission," he said.

Likewise, ESA’s Mars Express orbiter is providing beautiful and extremely useful data, Kminek said.

The role of international cooperation in a big Mars exploration adventure seems reasonable to consider.

"When you go from sample return to a human mission to Mars … there’s also need for more public support. And you want to have real firm cooperation between the agencies and the countries. The Mars sample return mission could be a good testbed for that," Kminek concluded.

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