Perseverance is Searching for the Perfect Landing Spot for the Upcoming Sample Return Mission - by ET_Exists
“The Perseverance team pulled out all the stops for us, because Mars Sample Return has unique needs when it comes to where we operate,” said MSR Program Manager Richard Cook of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Essentially, a dull landing place is good. The flatter and more uninspiring the vista, the better we like it, because while there are a lot of things that need to be done when we arrive to pick up the samples, sightseeing is not one of them.
The first runner, the Sample Retrieval Lander, will touch down near Percy’s initial landing site and deposit the fetch rover, which will be the second runner and responsible for collecting the samples and returning them back to the Lander. There are several options for this second runner, the first being an alternate runner to deliver the samples, while the second is Percy retaining some of its samples and returning them directly to the Lander itself.
“We had been eyeing these locations since before Perseverance’s landing, but imagery from orbit can only tell you so much,” said Al Chen, Mars Sample Return Systems Engineering & Integration manager at JPL. “Now we have some up-close-and-personal shots of the landing strip that indicate we were right on the money. The landing strip will more than likely make our shortlist of potential landing and caching sites for MSR.
When will MSR return samples back to Earth, and will we find evidence of past—or even present—signs of life on Mars? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
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