Published March 2019 | Version Published
Journal Article Open

The potential science and engineering value of samples delivered to Earth by Mars sample return

  • 1. ROR icon Jet Propulsion Lab
  • 2. ROR icon The Open University
  • 3. ROR icon University of Tennessee at Knoxville
  • 4. ROR icon Australian National University
  • 5. ROR icon Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
  • 6. ROR icon Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
  • 7. ROR icon ETH Zurich
  • 8. ROR icon University of Auckland
  • 9. ROR icon University of Cincinnati
  • 10. ROR icon Université Libre de Bruxelles
  • 11. ROR icon Ames Research Center
  • 12. ROR icon University of Guelph
  • 13. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 14. ROR icon Arizona State University
  • 15. ROR icon Luleå University of Technology
  • 16. ROR icon Southern Illinois University Carbondale
  • 17. ROR icon Johnson Space Center
  • 18. ROR icon Goddard Space Flight Center
  • 19. ROR icon University of Glasgow
  • 20. ROR icon University of Alberta
  • 21. ROR icon Purdue University West Lafayette
  • 22. ROR icon Florida State University
  • 23. ROR icon University of Münster
  • 24. ROR icon Glenn Research Center
  • 25. ROR icon University of Nantes
  • 26. ROR icon University of Colorado Boulder
  • 27. ROR icon Stony Brook University
  • 28. ROR icon Western University
  • 29. ROR icon Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris
  • 30. ROR icon Brown University
  • 31. ROR icon University of Paris
  • 32. ROR icon German Aerospace Center
  • 33. ROR icon Imperial College London
  • 34. ROR icon University of California, San Diego
  • 35. ROR icon University of New Mexico
  • 36. ROR icon University of California, Berkeley
  • 37. ROR icon Natural History Museum
  • 38. ROR icon Carnegie Institution for Science
  • 39. ROR icon University of Arizona
  • 40. ROR icon Utrecht University
  • 41. ROR icon University of Oxford
  • 42. ROR icon UNSW Sydney
  • 43. ROR icon Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • 44. ROR icon University of Oslo
  • 45. ROR icon Kennedy Space Center
  • 46. ROR icon Senckenberg Nature Research Society
  • 47. ROR icon Centro de Astrobiología

Abstract

Return of samples from the surface of Mars has been a goal of the international Mars science community for many years. Strategies for the collection of such samples have ranged from "grab and go" acquisition from the surface, to dust collection in the atmosphere, to scientific selection by geologically capable rovers. As comprehension of the complexity and potential habitability of Mars has increased, so has the realization that a randomly collected sample, while potentially interesting, would not be sufficient to answer the really big questions that for years have motivated Mars surface sample return. The deployment of NASA's Mars 2020 (M‐2020) sample‐collecting rover has brought the issues associated with the completion of Mars sample return (MSR) into sharp focus. M‐2020 will collect and cache geological samples for possible eventual return to Earth. The transportation to Earth would require a sample‐retrieval mission, which could also collect atmospheric samples, and an Earth‐return mission. Involvement of the international community in these missions would be very beneficial in terms of sharing cost, risk, and benefit.

Additional Information

© 2019 The Authors. Meteoritics & Planetary Science published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of The Meteoritical Society (MET). This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes. Issue Online: 05 March 2019; Version of Record online: 05 March 2019; Manuscript accepted: 23 November 2018; Manuscript received: 02 October 2018.

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Eprint ID
93735
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20190312-110107595

Dates

Created
2019-03-12
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2021-11-16
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