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#26 2023-11-23 17:27:34

SpaceNut
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From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,431

Re: Low cost Mars Sample Return.

I think that is due to needing more money for the SLS Artemis coming launches that are requiring a huge amount to move forward with this big dumb rocket.

The other is Lockheed being the lead for the return rocket is another area of rising expenses.

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#27 2023-12-04 08:46:47

Mars_B4_Moon
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Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 9,776

Re: Low cost Mars Sample Return.

China wants to retrieve a sample of Mars by 2028
https://phys.org/news/2023-11-china-sample-mars.html

This mission will be the third in the China National Space Administration's (CNSA) Tianwen program (Tianwen-3) and will consist of a pair of launches in 2028 that will return samples to Earth in July 2031. According to a new study recently published in the journal Chinese Science Bulletin, Chinese scientists announced that they have developed a new numerical model to simulate the atmospheric environment of Mars. Known as the Global Open Planetary atmospheric model for Mars (aka. GoPlanet-Mars, or GoMars), this model offers research support in preparation for the Tianwen-3 mission.

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#28 2023-12-09 10:33:07

Mars_B4_Moon
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Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 9,776

Re: Low cost Mars Sample Return.

a popular article has gone been shared a lot
from another discussion

Robert Zubrin

'Rethink the Mars Program'
https://spacenews.com/rethink-the-mars-program/
"It’s time to consider alternatives to sample return"

NASA’s robotic Mars exploration program is in crisis. A recent review of the plan of its flagship Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission pegged its cost at $10 billion, a price tag that threatens to preclude funding any other exploration missions to the Red Planet for the next decade and a half.

NASA last flew a life detection experiment to Mars in 1976.

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#29 2023-12-26 17:10:02

Mars_B4_Moon
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Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 9,776

Re: Low cost Mars Sample Return.

The Mars Sample Return Mission Is at a Dangerous Crossroads

https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti … rossroads/

French Rocket still expensive

British will provide an additional £10.7 million to replace Russian-made instrument on  Rosalind Franklin rover, so that it can launch in 2028.

https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/news/archive/ … 25-en.html

July 2023 Mars Ascent Vehicle Continues Progress

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-mars … ple-return

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2023-12-26 17:14:58)

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#30 2024-02-23 12:35:13

Mars_B4_Moon
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Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 9,776

Re: Low cost Mars Sample Return.

Could have been done in NASA Mars Viking times? MSR development hell for 50 years, still ongoing.

the Russian part of the European lander gone after sanctions with the Russia invasion of Ukraine, the mission continues Mars Sample Return (MSR), a joint campaign being planned by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA)

NASA has put the program on pause as it re-evaluates


MSR at serious risk
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4741/1
announcement was shocking yet not entirely unexpected.


Jeff Foust is the editor and publisher of The Space Review, and a senior staff writer with SpaceNews. He also operates the Spacetoday.net web site.

Some privately worry the damage done to the MSR program might be irreparable. The layoffs came after JPL had worked to address other issues at the lab that surfaced when software testing problems delayed the Psyche mission by more than a year.

PL worked to address those problems (to the satisfaction of Young and his review board), but that it meant deferring work on the VERITAS Venus orbiter mission by three years to allow JPL to devote its resources on priorities like Europa Clipper, the NISAR Earth science mission—and MSR. (Despite the overall funding uncertainty, Leshin said in January, both NISAR and Europa Clipper are on schedule for launches this spring and October, respectively.)

But solving those problems will be no easier after the layoffs. As one industry source not at JPL said on background, “If JPL had trouble doing all their missions before, how will they manage now with 500 fewer employees?”

The hope in the planetary science community, which has considered returning samples from Mars its top priority among large missions, is that NASA in general, and JPL specifically, will be able to chart a path through this budget, workforce, and mission architecture challenge, finding a more affordable approach that, likely, will take longer to carry out. Those scientists have been waiting for decades for getting samples back from Mars; they may need a little more patience.



NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced it would lay off 530 employees, or about 8% of its total workforce, along with 40 contractors.

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#31 2024-02-23 12:37:47

Mars_B4_Moon
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Re: Low cost Mars Sample Return.

Can SpaceX’s Starship save Mars Sample Return?

https://www.planetary.org/articles/can- … ple-return

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#32 2024-03-04 18:24:46

Mars_B4_Moon
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Posts: 9,776

Re: Low cost Mars Sample Return.

Grabbing Samples from the Surface of Mars

https://www.universetoday.com/166000/gr … e-of-mars/

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#33 2024-03-04 20:46:07

SpaceNut
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From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,431

Re: Low cost Mars Sample Return.

First problem is that Perseverance has been getting the samples in a means to get them ready but in that process is leaving them across the surface as it does so.
This creates the second issue of it takes time remotely to gather them to a central site and be able to transfer them in quantity to begin the process.
All of that time the ship on mars surface is aging due to mars temperature that is cycling over great extremes.
Third with only the single return site and just one gathering unit we are going to need lots of time as there is no quick way to get them other than to follow the path which got them ready.

We did learn that a helicopter could do the gathering but that is a next generation machine that would only be projected to last just like the last only larger.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA-ESA_ … ple_Return

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/mars- … return-msr

What is the Mars Sample Return Program?

Why its got issues Will NASA be able to return Mars samples to Earth? New audit raises doubts

Design, cost and scheduling are all significant obstacles, an audit report of NASA's Mars Sample Return (MSR) Program by the agency's Office of Inspector General (OIG) finds.

The MAV is required to get from the surface with the samples to an earth return vehicle.
https://mars.nasa.gov/msr/spacecraft/ma … t-vehicle/

mav-cutout.png

Tech Specs
Height    10 feet (3 meters) tall
Mass    ~992 pounds (450 kilograms)
Weight    ~992 pounds on Earth (~450 kilograms)
~372 pounds on Mars (~169 kilograms)
Diameter    1.6 feet (0.5 meters) wide
Speed    2.5 miles per second (about 4 kilometers per second), the MAV would reach its desired orbit about 10 minutes after launch
Fuel    Two-stage, solid propellant rocket

The dream was to have a partner build the rover to go get the samples but with Inguitity sucsess plans could evolve.
https://mars.nasa.gov/msr/spacecraft/sa … licopters/
helicopter-cutout.png

Tech Specs
Size    About the size of Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which has a rotor span of ~4 feet (~1.2 meters)
Mass    ~2.3 kilograms
Weight    ~5 pounds on Earth
~1.9 pounds on Mars
Height    ~20.47 inches (~52 centimeters)
Power    Solar panels that charge internal lithium-ion batteries
Groundspeed    ~11 mph (~5 meters per second)
Flight Range    ~2,300 feet (700 meters)
Flight Altitude    ~66 feet (20 meters)
Flight Environment    Mars' thin atmosphere, less than 1% the density of Earth's atmosphere
Mobility    Four wheels about 0.8 inches (2 centimeters) wide, with an outer diameter of about 3.94 inches (10 centimeters)

Of course this was all to happen so that man could go to mars and back safely.

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#34 2024-03-09 15:02:09

SpaceNut
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From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,431

Re: Low cost Mars Sample Return.

Opinion: Mars rocks are a science prize the U.S. can't afford to lose

https://www.nasa.gov/moontomarsarchitecture/

The first phase of Mars Sample Return has already begun. In February 2021, the rover Perseverance landed on Mars tasked with collecting air, rock cores and soil that would ultimately be returned to Earth. Equipped with a sophisticated sampling system, Perseverance has already filled 23 of its collection tubes and has 15 more.

The envisioned next phase is sending a Sample Retrieval Lander to rendezvous with Perseverance, transfering  the samples and  then launching them into space, to be picked up by an Earth Return Orbiter furnished by ESA.

Yet how, when, or even if those next phases will happen is far from certain.

Faced with rising costs, NASA commissioned an independent review of the entire program in 2023. The review didn't pull punches, finding that the likely cost of the project had ballooned, its organizational structure wasn’t working, and that NASA hadn’t effectively communicated to the science community or the public why the massive effort was worthwhile in the first place. Despite that, the review emphasized that the scientific and geopolitical value of Mars Sample Return couldn’t be overstated, and that the project could be made affordable.
Still, the Senate threatened to reduce the project’s budget substantially and even cancel it outright, which starkly contrasted with the House’s proposal to support  the program  fully. Congress now proposes to fund it at some level, but this uncertainty has driven NASA to “ramp back” its Mars Sample Return-related activities. As a result, Pasadena’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA’s lead center for the project, laid off more than 600 staff members last month — highly skilled expertise that NASA can no longer access.

Now Congress has a choice: It can turn its back on Mars Sample Return or commit to funding the boldest robotic planetary science effort humanity has yet undertaken.

The sample project must be put on a financially affordable path as part of NASA’s overall program of U.S. planetary exploration — returning samples from Mars cannot happen at the expense of every other planetary science enterprise at the agency. A team began developing a cost-effective path forward last year, in response to the independent review’s criticisms. Its proposals are expected later in March.

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#35 2024-04-06 06:15:50

Mars_B4_Moon
Member
Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 9,776

Re: Low cost Mars Sample Return.

Space Budget Experts Warn FY2025 May Be Even Worse for NASA
https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/spac … -for-nasa/

The Planetary Society’s Casey Dreier said he’s reviewed 60 years of NASA budgets and never seen that before. Toal Eisen exclaimed Congress “doesn’t get to enact ‘TBD’.”

Dreier stressed that NASA’s science program bore the brunt of the cuts and the planetary science division, which includes MSR, in particular.


NASA’s Mars rover finds rock from possible ancient beach
https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/explor … ck-sample/

Elon Musk hints at a crewed mission to Mars in 2029
https://www.npr.org/2022/03/17/10871678 … -mars-2029

A lunar pandemic
https://aeon.co/essays/what-can-we-lear … -never-was
In the 1960s, NASA went to huge expense to contain possible pathogens from the Moon. What can we learn from the attempt?

NASA reassured the public that its ‘unparalleled’ and ‘exhaustive’ preparations had left nothing to chance. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, every part of its quarantine procedure suffered disastrous breaches that would surely have exposed Earth to lunar microbes – had they existed. The microscopic universe, it turned out, was simply impossible to control.

To ensure that the astronauts didn’t harbour a slow-moving illness, the quarantine would have to be at least three weeks long. And to verify that lunar microbes couldn’t contaminate the biosphere, some of the priceless rocks gathered by the astronauts would need to be ground to dust and exposed to plants, animals and tissue samples.

The conference marked the turning of the tide in American preparations for back contamination from space. It was now clear that NASA would need to design a facility that could not only protect Moon rocks from terrestrial contamination but also protect Earth from contamination by those rocks – all while conducting complex experiments using the rocks and maintaining a strict quarantine of everything else that had returned from the Moon, astronauts included. Nothing like the facility they would need had ever been imagined, let alone built.

After more than a year of bureaucratic squabbling, NASA planners settled on a design for an 86,000 sq ft laboratory. It would cost nearly $75 million to build, $60 million to equip, and more than $13 million annually to operate (all in 2020 US dollars). It would consist of three parts, each with a different function: a quarantine facility to isolate returned astronauts and spacecraft behind a biological barrier; a sample operations area to run experiments on Moon rocks and Earthly biota behind another barrier; and an administrative area.

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2024-04-06 12:27:00)

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#36 2024-04-21 03:31:51

Mars_B4_Moon
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Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 9,776

Re: Low cost Mars Sample Return.

Skip the first few mins of the video nothing happens

For the first 7 mins of the vid they seem to just play some Latin yacht Salsa soft smooth rock Caribbean type guitar music then NASA hides bad news behind telephone tele-conference,  Bill Nelson the 14th NASA administrator and a former U.S. senator answers question.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PA1qhzkSlA

they say 2040 is when they will try bring the samples back?

a web and tv quote which circulates on social media then from a site knowyourmeme

"He's dead, Jim"/"It's dead, Jim"

Part of a series on Star Trek.

dead?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH7KYmGnj40

'a popular catch phrase from the original Star Trek television series (infused into modern culture by its countless reruns) that is used as a pronouncement that something is no longer alive or working'


Nelson Defends Tough Choices
https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/nels … t-request/

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson fielded questions from House Appropriations committee members

EDIT the words 'Bu d g et' and 'Re qu est' together may be triggering a 404 error and filter

also Musk and Space-X

'Starship has the potential to return serious tonnage from Mars within ~5 years'
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1779947903093776406

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2024-04-21 04:01:26)

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#37 2024-04-21 09:03:45

SpaceNut
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From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,431

Re: Low cost Mars Sample Return.

Nasa expenditures for an end-to-end system is failing due to costs. In the end it had to many parts and partners to be able to make it happen.

A study from July 2020 estimated the total cost of MSR to be between $2.5 and $3 billion.

NASA had hoped that Mars Sample Return would cost $5 billion to $7 billion, and that the rocks would arrive on Earth in 2033. But last fall, a panel that reviewed the mission concluded that the cost was likely to be much higher, from $8 to $11 billion.

A new date of 2040 is even more costly.

Based on topic start of 2012 its got to be even older than this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA-ESA_ … ple_Return
Seems even 2001 was the beginning.

Nasa is also looking at not a rover retrieval of the ready samples means a possible Sample Recovery Helicopters

This still needs a MAV and lander pltform for the helicopter to make use of.

We are talking about how much money has already gone under the bridge.
FY 2021 President’s B u d g e t Request

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#38 2024-04-21 12:06:25

SpaceNut
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From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,431

Re: Low cost Mars Sample Return.

It is here that Mars_B4_Moon has the bragging of China which could strive to do what we can not. With a response that follows by Oldfart1939 more convinced that Elon could do it with Flacon 9 Heavy Red Dragon.

We even were close to designing something along the same lines to go to mars but it's about wasting money. with the current clasic Nasa RFP and contracts.

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#39 2024-04-21 14:17:17

Oldfart1939
Member
Registered: 2016-11-26
Posts: 2,451

Re: Low cost Mars Sample Return.

I made my comments after hearing Jim Bell describe in detail what has to happen for success; I don't think NASA wants to gamble $$11 Billion on a less than 50% overall chance of success. I personally wouldn't take that chance with the diminishing budget of the space agency; given the odds stated for success, the economics argue against the funding. There are too many high risk operations that need to succeed 100% in order for a sample return.

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#40 2024-04-21 15:16:35

SpaceNut
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From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,431

Re: Low cost Mars Sample Return.

One of the issues is the time to retrieve all of the samples that are lying on the surface. That makes robotically done a long period as due to the telerobotic time delay that are required for programming any movement.

That means fuel boiloff since oxygen required for most will need active cooling.

Solids due change this in the design but duration will it affect it during the waiting period on the cold mars surface waiting.

We know that we require navigation, heat shield but is a sky crane the means to the end or do we really need a capsule or landing platform.

So that is a many stepped process but once we put numbers to what is required and not its cost from the bloated cost plus companies.

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#41 2024-04-21 19:09:16

SpaceNut
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From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,431

Re: Low cost Mars Sample Return.

Seems others are thinking bigger for the ship to rescue Nasa's mission.

Experts Suggest Using SpaceX's Starship to Rescue Stranded Samples on Surface of Mars

Needless to say, a rocket that could both land and lift off from the Martian surface could help streamline the endeavor significantly.

While nobody really knows if Starship could ever be used to collect samples from the Red Planet — SpaceX has yet to even get it into space and back in one piece — it's a glimmer of hope for an expensive mission with a spectacular potential scientific payoff.

"There are aspects of solar system evolution that can only be done through the return of samples [from Mars],” Brown University planetary scientist Jack Mustard told SA. "Having datable samples from another planetary body to address that question would be unbelievable."

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#42 2024-04-23 11:36:40

RGClark
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From: Philadelphia, PA
Registered: 2006-07-05
Posts: 765
Website

Re: Low cost Mars Sample Return.

NASA is now opening up the Mars Sample Return mission to the commercial space approach. The usual NASA government financed approach is estimated to cost ~$10 Billion. But following the commercial space approach it probably could be done at literally 1/100th that at ~$100 million including launch cost.

I had estimated it as less than ~$200 million using the Falcon Heavy as launcher:

Low cost commercial Mars Sample Return.

http://exoscientist.blogspot.com/2023/0 … eturn.html

This could get ~750 kg back from Mars with the Falcon Heavy as the launcher. However, it probably could in fact be launched on the Falcon 9. The Falcon 9 can launch about a quarter of the mass of the Falcon Heavy to Mars, for all the in-space stages, so estimate the sample size returned from Mars of ca. 180kg.

At a $40 launch cost of the reused F9, then all together with all the in-space stages, the mission cost probably could be less than than ~$100 million. Such a low mission cost probably could be paid for by advertising alone.

But to encourage participants to take up the task of such a fully privately financed mission, NASA could offer a prize of say $200 to $500 million to whoever could accomplish it, with some smaller incentive prizes to those who accomplish some key required steps.

   Bob Clark


Old Space rule of acquisition (with a nod to Star Trek - the Next Generation):

      “Anything worth doing is worth doing for a billion dollars.”

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#43 2024-04-24 20:38:08

SpaceNut
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From: New Hampshire
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Posts: 29,431

Re: Low cost Mars Sample Return.

NASA to overhaul mission returning samples from Mars—here's why it must and will go ahead it is seeking new ways to complete the return to Earth of rock cores drilled by the Perseverance Rover in the Jezero Crater on Mars.

One key conclusion of the NASA review is that MSR was established with unrealistic budget and schedules. Now it expects a cost of US$8–11 billion (£6.5–8.9 billion), having originally estimated $5.3 billion. That's not including the investment that the European Space Agency (ESA) is making, which is probably of the order of €2 billion (£1.7 billion).

There are also concerns that the timeline for return of the drill cores to Earth may slip in to the 2040s, and therefore start holding up the even more ambitious vision for human missions to Mars.

current mission profile is to:

Perseverance is already doing the first key stage of this mission—drilling in Jezero Crater. This is stage one of four. The next two stages will be to gather at least some of the drilled samples and launch them on a Mars ascent vehicle into orbit for capture by ESA's Return Orbiter. That capture in Mars orbit of a football-sized return capsule is one of the key technical challenges of MSR. ESA is taking a major part in this and leads the return orbiter development.

Designing to get the samples that are each of the rock cores inside the 15cm tubes are about 6cm long seems to be more of a job for pick up.
The issue is that the launch and then a follow up to transfer to another to go home means much more mass is required.

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#44 2024-05-02 08:24:37

SpaceNut
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From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,431

Re: Low cost Mars Sample Return.

Nasa has awakened and is NASA chooses 9 companies for Mars Exploration Program concept studies will pay nine companies between $200,000 and $300,000 each to conduct a dozen tests to support future missions to Mars.

Nothing like a reset....

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#45 2024-05-04 08:04:02

Mars_B4_Moon
Member
Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 9,776

Re: Low cost Mars Sample Return.

I don't know if Musk has ever commented directly on this NASA mission and its crazy budget.

'Prelude to Mars'

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1673832186796179456

the focus seems to be on getting Artemis Missions back on schedule

NASA thought the Mars sample mission cost might cost 400 million then $1.05 billion costs start going crazy like JWST but at least JWST was built, it was launched and is working and doing science, an independent review board came in NASA will spend lots of money they said and ESA couldn't afford Mars, NASA couldn't afford Mars but maybe an international effort was affordable and the most probable mission cost would be $3.8-$4.4B but costs grow and MSR starts almost eating all of NASA's budget, then had a revised budget ranging from $8 billion to $11 billion


ESA thought they could join in the sample, leap frog a Rover onto Mars and do what NASA has done without ever having to test drive on the Moon.

the Europe mission still trying to figure things out

https://twitter.com/spacegovuk/status/1 … 4164514859


Kazachok the name of an East Slavic folk dance, it was also to carry instruments from the Czech Republic and Spain.

an old news item and since then more War, new sanctions and the decline of Russia


'Soviet and Russian planetary science missions have had a poor track record for decades'
https://thespacereview.com/article/4548/1

Over the past decade other countries new to planetary exploration have developed their technical experience and built upon it. China and India flew increasingly sophisticated lunar missions before accomplishing successful Mars missions on their first try. The UAE flew an impressive mission to Mars that benefitted from substantial American assistance. But the Russians only have three decades of planetary mission failures to build on.


As NASA or ESA or others try to figure things out they say the date may slip from the end of this decade 2029? to 2040s. In one final act to save it all NASA is calling on private companies for backup. As crazy as the budget and political drama is the sample would have great value to see what mankind might process and produce on Mars and outside of having an Astronuat on Europa or going to Exoplanets the planet Mars is the nearest, best place to search for life beyond Earth,


If they at NASA push this mission into the 2040s and don't support Space-X you can be sure some other nation even places like India or South Korea for example will have the opportunity to outdo NASA. If NASA is no longer a leader there might even be public outrage which demands NASA be broken up.



Another Moon Sample Return, China's Chang'e-6 Lunar probe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB0vlVm1PkU

China called for international partners to propose additional payloads, it might have science experiments from other nations.


The Chinese Mars sample mission could be one of the big political 'feats' they have planned and it looks far more simple, they already done the Moon, they already did a Mars Orbiter and Mars Rover, it will keep it simple no helicopters, no catapults chucking rockets, no big complex international network of Rovers and lander, if it does launch it may be like the Moon mission, land shovel something up and go home, collected samples fire off into space in the orbiter/return-vehicle, which will depart for Earth, they can decide if they want to put it on a station or atmospheric reentry vehicle.

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2024-05-04 08:24:04)

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#46 2024-05-04 08:51:27

SpaceNut
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From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,431

Re: Low cost Mars Sample Return.

Since Space X has said that it got 40 to 50 mT to orbit and did do fuel transfer one needs to then understand what mars requires. The is issue is telerobotic gathering of the samples will take more time than a quick in and out which gives a problem for fuel to return selection.

Since we have not landed a starship on mars the bets that the same payload is also of question asw well as the ship to make it happen.

Does that mean we can still only use payloads near 2 mT as the building blocks to get this done.

We know that mars orbit to landing is a factor of 15 to 1 which gives a problem as to launch a 1 to 2 mT craft from the surface and deliver the samples home needs to be designed as the fuel must be sustainable for the duration.

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#47 2024-05-04 09:57:49

GW Johnson
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From: McGregor, Texas USA
Registered: 2011-12-04
Posts: 5,796
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Re: Low cost Mars Sample Return.

I predicted when Perseverance was planned that the sample return feature would never take place because of mainly cost,  but also technical difficulty (since the samples are cached widely apart).  The NASA/ESA sample return mission has now essentially fallen apart due to costs quoted by "old space",  and is now back to square one with NASA asking "new space" for bids. 

Those samples are unlikely to be retrieved until men are there,  and certainly not from the first mission,  but very much later when there is a base (or bases) trying to evolve into a settlement (or settlements).  In other words,  about a century from now.

GW


GW Johnson
McGregor,  Texas

"There is nothing as expensive as a dead crew,  especially one dead from a bad management decision"

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#48 2024-05-04 11:44:48

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 19,365

Re: Low cost Mars Sample Return.

For GW Johnson re #47

Those caches will be valuable a century from now, because they capture a moment in time before Mars loads up with odds and ends from Earth, as it surely will ... The landscape is already cluttered with miscellaneous landing equipment and a few craters from failed landings.

However, I think you are overly pessimistic ... the samples are highly likely to be prized by the Chinese, who will be perfectly happy to retrieve them for NASA. The Chinese do not appear to be constrained by the same budget issues as the Americans, although without a doubt they are dealing with their own budget issues.  We just don't know what they are.

The Chinese just launched a mission to the far side of the Moon, and it is my impression sample return is part of the plan.  The Chinese will demonstrate mastery of heat shield design, if their samples return safely, which seems likely.

(th)

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#49 2024-05-07 16:23:23

RGClark
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From: Philadelphia, PA
Registered: 2006-07-05
Posts: 765
Website

Re: Low cost Mars Sample Return.

Robert Zubrin proposes another low cost approach to Mars Sample Return:


A practical approach to the Mars Sample Return mission
Robert Zubrin
May 6, 2024
https://spacenews.com/practical-approac … n-mission/

This looks also like it could be something done for less than $100 million by commercial space, 1/100th the cost estimated by NASA doing it.

  Bob Clark


Old Space rule of acquisition (with a nod to Star Trek - the Next Generation):

      “Anything worth doing is worth doing for a billion dollars.”

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#50 2024-05-17 04:33:52

Mars_B4_Moon
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Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 9,776

Re: Low cost Mars Sample Return.

NASA and ESA complete agreement for cooperation on Mars rover mission
https://spacenews.com/nasa-and-esa-comp … r-mission/

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