Launch of the Mars Ascent vehicle with samples: This illustration shows a concept of how NASA’s Mars Ascent Vehicle, carrying tubes containing samples of rock and soil, could be launched from the surface of Mars in a stage of the sample return mission to Mars. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech. Full image and caption ›
The award takes NASA and ESA one step closer to making the Mars Sample Return, an ambitious planetary exploration program that will build on decades of science, knowledge and experience.
NASA awarded the Mars Ascent Propulsion System (MAPS) contract to Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation of Elkton, Maryland, to provide propulsion support and products for space flight missions at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Together with the successful landing of the Mars Perseverance rover, this award puts NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) one step closer to making the Mars Sample Return (MSR), a highly ambitious planetary exploration program that will be based on decades of science, knowledge, and experience of Mars exploration.
The fixed rate plus cost contract has a potential mission services value of $ 60.2 million and a maximum potential value of $ 84.5 million. The contract starts on Thursday, March 4, with a base period of 14 months, followed by two option periods that can be exercised at NASA’s discretion.
In the next stages of the MSR campaign, NASA and ESA will provide components for a Sample Retrieval Lander mission and an Earth Return Orbiter mission. The Sample Retrieval Lander mission will deliver a Sample Fetch Rover and Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) to the surface of Mars. Marshall is responsible for the MAV element of the MSR Program, which is a two-stage vehicle that will be a critical element in supporting the MSR to retrieve and return the samples that the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover will collect to return to Earth. The Martian environment will be a significant factor in the design, development, manufacture, testing and qualification of two different solid rocket engines with multiple deliveries from each. Through the MAPS contract, Northrop Grumman will supply the propulsion systems for the MAV, as well as other support equipment and logistics services.
Bringing samples of Mars back to Earth will allow scientists around the world to examine specimens using instruments too sophisticated, too large and complex to send to Mars, and will allow future generations to study them using technology not yet available. Curating samples on Earth will allow the scientific community to test new theories and models as they are developed, just as the Apollo samples that returned from the Moon did for decades.
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Janet Sudnik
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama.
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