Launch of the vehicle to Mars with samples: This illustration shows a concept of how NASA’s Mars Ascension vehicle, which carried tubes containing samples of rock and soil, could be launched from the surface of Mars in a step of the Mars sample return mission. . Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech. Full picture and legend ›
The award moves NASA and ESA one step closer to making Mars Sample Return, an ambitious planetary exploration program that will be based on decades of science, knowledge and experience.
NASA has 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. Along with the success of the Mars Perseverance rover touchover, this award moves NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) one step further towards the realization of Mars Sample Return (MSR), a highly ambitious planetary exploration program that it will be based on decades of science, knowledge, and experience of exploring Mars.
The most fixed cost rate contract has a potential mission service value of $ 60.2 million and a maximum potential value of $ 84.5 million. The contract begins 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 steps of the MSR campaign, NASA and ESA will provide components for a Sander Retrieval Lander mission and an Earth Return Orbiter mission. The Sander 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 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 of each. Through the MAPS contract, Northrop Grumman will provide propulsion systems for the MAV, as well as other support equipment and logistics services.
Retrieving samples from Mars on Earth will allow scientists around the world to examine specimens using sophisticated instruments that are too large and too complex to send to Mars, and will allow future generations to study them with technology not yet available. Curing samples on Earth will allow the scientific community to test new theories and models as they develop, just as Apollo samples returned from the Moon have done so for decades.
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NASA Headquarters, Washington
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Janet Sudnik
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama.
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