How does NASA plan to keep samples from Mars safe from contamination (and contaminating Earth)?

NASA’s Mars Pattern Return Mission is inching nearer and nearer. The general mission structure simply hit a brand new milestone when Perseverance collected the primary pattern that will probably be despatched again. However what occurs as soon as that pattern truly will get right here? NASA and its companion, ESA, are nonetheless engaged on that, however not too long ago they launched a truth sheet that covers what’s going to occur in the course of the first stage of that course of—returning to the bottom.

That return will happen in the course of the desert within the western U.S., in an space known as the Utah Take a look at and Coaching Vary (UTTR). Whereas this will likely look like an obscure place to land such an vital mission, it does have a number of issues going for it.

First, it is within the continental U.S. That offers it comparatively easy accessibility to superior laboratory gear accessible all through the nation. NASA is the most probably candidate to have the ability to marshal all of the assets essential to quarantine the pattern to maintain it separate from the broader Earth setting, which might assist eradicate the (admittedly unlikely) occasion of a Martian superbug getting on the free.

Safe containment is without doubt one of the causes the company is foregoing a water touchdown. Doing so would reduce the impression on the samples, but it surely additionally would have a slight probability that the capsule may sink into the ocean and the tiny bits of Mars inside it may very well be misplaced to the ocean. Avoiding that might be good, so it is higher to land on land.

However that land must be remoted, one other benefit of the UTTR. Not solely is it not close to any roads, however it’s also already restricted air space, as it’s the web site of loads of rocket and airplane testing. Being remoted additionally signifies that the capsule is much less more likely to impression something vital if one thing goes unsuitable with the trajectory.

That will probably be significantly vital given the tactic of touchdown chosen for the MSR capsule. It should fall to the bottom utilizing solely aero-braking—no parachute required. Due to this fact, it will likely be going considerably quicker than the standard parachute-assisted capsule returns. However, based on NASA’s calculations, the samples and their containers ought to survive the impression. Not utilizing a parachute will massively simplify the capsule’s design and reduce its weight, each of that are important components contemplating the capsule itself has to return from Mars.

Even so, the impression itself goes to make a pleasant dent within the panorama. NASA has already begun performing testing utilizing a mock-up of the MSR’s pattern return capsule. Doing so has created a collection of 1.3-meter-wide craters within the panorama and ejected materials 15 meters away from the crater.

Assuming the samples and capsule do survive, the following step could be safely transporting them to a laboratory the place they are often correctly studied. That’s, in spite of everything, the entire goal of the Mars Pattern Return mission. Up to now, that a part of this system hasn’t been outlined but, however figuring out that the samples will find yourself in the course of the Utah desert is at the least a spot to start out.