https://twitter.com/MarsZhurong/status/ … 4523732993
In Chinese language
https://share.api.weibo.cn/share/314999 … 37772.html
Deep dive into an acrimonious dispute b/w German entrepreneurs and Chinese investors that ended w/ a GOP-connected US firm swooping in to snap up the prized asset: licences for low earth orbit satellites that could change the future of connectivity.
https://twitter.com/EleanorOlcott/statu … 9501923328
Next steps of the Chinese Space Station
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD8FNTtVQ3o
Trade between China and other BRICS countries records a 12.1% year-on-year rise
https://twitter.com/ChinaObserver2/stat … 5048520704
China aims to bring Mars samples to Earth 2 years before NASA, ESA mission
https://twitter.com/AJ_FI/status/1538832363081326593
In a brief statement, ESA all but ruled out a launch that had been planned for late September of the ExoMars mission on Proton launch vehicle from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, raising questions about when, or if, the mission will fly.
“Regarding the ExoMars program continuation, the sanctions and the wider context make a launch in 2022 very unlikely,” the agency said. “ESA’s Director General will analyze all the options and prepare a formal decision on the way forward by ESA Member States.”
Could Musk / SpaceX launch it but also build the Europeans a landing platform?
The ESA ExoMars rover, also named 'Rosalind Franklin' involves the Russian Roscosmos State Corporation. The plan calls for a Russian launch vehicle, an ESA carrier model, and a Russian lander named Kazachok.
Lockheed Martin Not SpaceX Will Be the World's Biggest Rocket Company on Mars??
'This miniature rocket could be the first NASA craft launched from Mars'
https://www.popsci.com/technology/nasa- … velop-mav/
NASA recently chose Lockheed Martin to build the Mars Ascent Vehicle
Lockheed is no prize in the game and to wait 6 years to see them fail is not what we need. Until they show retro propulsion we will not see them bring back anything from mars.
]]>The joint mission between NASA and European Space Agency is tied to the Perseverance rover already on the Red Planet that landed in 2021. The agencies’ plan is to launch a lander to Mars as early as 2026 that brings along with it a smaller rover designed to collect the samples that Perseverance is currently gathering, then stick them in what will be the first Mars Ascent Vehicle. That vehicle will then fly the samples up to the ESA-designed Earth Return Orbiter spacecraft, which would bring Martian soil to Earth sometime in the mid-2030s.
The clock is ticking
Mars Ascent Vehicle Integrated System contract with a potential value of $194 million.
A six-year period for the contract begins this month. The company is expected to design, build and evaluate multiple ascent vehicle test units in addition to final spacecraft.
The spacecraft will be small and lightweight, have to fit inside the lander, and will be designed to carry rock, sediment and atmospheric samples back off planet. It will also need to interact with NASA’s Capture, Containment, and Return System payload being carried by the ESA orbiter.
The three most recent MSR concepts are a NASA-ESA proposal, a Chinese proposal, and a Russian proposal, Mars-Grunt and Musk seems to plan to join in with Space-X.
Samples had already been gathered on Mars by the NASA JPL Perseverance rover.
'NASA, Scientists Devise Ways To Ensure 'microbe-free' Return Of Mars Sample'
https://www.republicworld.com/science/s … eshow.html
The samples collected by Perseverance will be brought to Earth no earlier than 2031 under the Mars Sample Return campaign managed by NASA and ESA.
At the ESA video social media channel on they have a video about rockets, Earth satellites, search for hazzards from space and PHAs, space telescopes, the Moon and the planned Mars 'Rosalind Franklin' Rover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mIjy0pUfFg
they also mention the 'Aurora Program' having study with an astronaut with a disability in space
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/08 … eturn.html
Pricey and risky
There is no question that a Mars sample return mission will be a pricey and risky initiative and opinions at the meeting varied widely when it came time to discuss the best way to get the greatest scientific returns for the least money.
"We don't want to engineer the [heck] out of this and make it a $10 billion return mission. We'll never get samples back. Let's be realistic," said Clive Neal, a professor of civil engineering and geological sciences at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
"A Mars sample return will be much more costly than other Mars missions. That's not actually a thesis ... I think that's a given," said David Mittlefehldt of the Astromaterials Research Office. "Orbital study is getting increasingly sophisticated. Nevertheless, it doesn't reliably provide an accurate description of the geology of the surface. And that's really what you need in order to plan a Mars sample return mission," he said. "Therefore, I think we should go some place where wheels-on-the-ground provide that geologic context."
Mars Sample Return Design Contest Winners habe been announced.
When MarsDrive first formed we started a Mars Sample Return Mission Design Contest. This was meant to help stimulate research and thinking into what will be the most complex Mars mission before humans are sent to Mars. We received five entries from interested parties and over the last 18 months have watched as some amazing designs began to emerge.
Today we are pleased to announce the winner and runner up for this contest. Our judges for the final phase of the contest consisted of Dr Louis Friedman, Executive Director of The Planetary Society and Dr Chris McKay of NASA Ames. They unanimously elected Kent Nebergall's design titled "Project Rigel:Mars Sample Return"
As the entry that most closely met the conditions of the contest and also the updated version last year. The runner up was Terry Wilson's design "Mars Challenger".
The other entries were Csaba Boros Sample Return Mission Design, Mini MAV and Multi ERV by Ales Holub, and Mars Oracle by Eric Shear and associates.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all contest entrants for their creative work and their patience with this contest as it went through several structural changes since its inception and for the work they put into their updated designs.
A sample return mission to Mars is going to be one of the most challenging projects in the exploration history of Mars and we at MarsDrive are going to be awarding Kent $500 and Terry Wilson $100 while also submitting the 2 top designs to various conferences such as the coming Mars Society conference, AIAA and to interested space agencies such as the ESA who are beginning work on investigations into Mars sample return missions. Our hope is that the work achieved here will draw us one step closer to the day humans explore Mars.
Ok so MarsDrive does not have a lot of money but the design work speaks for itsself.
]]>The question is what do we do between now and then. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot planned in the launch windows in the mid to late 10's. Finding and getting at the water should be our priority.
]]>Another thought. Politically this might be a really good idea. Cooperation with the Russians works quite well and as the Russians are already working with the Chinese on Phobos-Grunt, this would be a way for the US to start working with the Chinese without complications. ESA provided the Mössbauer spectrometer for MER and they already are working with CNSA on Double Star, so it could be a very happy international project
Yet another thought. By 2018 Ares V should be operational, this guy can put 5 tons onto the surface of Mars. This might allow a Mars Direct style mission, with a direct sample return possible without LMO rendezvous. This would give Ares V an early mission that would help to accelerate its development. It would also considerably reduce the cost of MSR.
]]>The Russians are doing a sample return with a Phobos lander. This would be similar but it would hop about collecting Martian rocks - it would use spectrometers like the ones on MER to find matches to the known rock types that MER has already identifed to be sure they originated on mars.
Might work, especially using a spectrometer and if they find a nice reddish crater. Still I'd be worried about the Phobos dust concealing alot of it.
Ok so a Phobos venture or SCIM are the most immediate means of aquiring a Martian sample without the hassle of either ISRU or some elaborate orbital rendevous the 'big-wig' science communities have fanned over for long enough.
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