Mars Sample Return using commercial capabilities: Mission architecture overview
- Resource Type
- Conference
- Authors
- Gonzales, Andrew A.; Stoker, Carol R.; Lemke, Lawrence G.; Bowles, Jeffrey V.; Huynh, Loc C; Faber, Nicholas T.; Race, Margaret S.
- Source
- 2014 IEEE Aerospace Conference Aerospace Conference, 2014 IEEE. :1-15 Mar, 2014
- Subject
- Aerospace
Communication, Networking and Broadcast Technologies
Computing and Processing
Engineering Profession
Robotics and Control Systems
Signal Processing and Analysis
Mars
Contamination
Irrigation
Hardware
Propulsion
- Language
- ISSN
- 1095-323X
Mars Sample Return (MSR) is the highest priority science mission for the next decade as recommended by the recent Decadal Survey of Planetary Science. This paper presents an overview of a feasibility study for a MSR mission. The objective of the study was to determine whether emerging commercial capabilities can be used to reduce the number of mission systems and launches required to return the samples, with the goal of reducing mission cost. The major element required for the MSR mission are described and include an integration of the emerging commercial capabilities with small spacecraft design techniques; new utilizations of traditional aerospace technologies; and recent technological developments.