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 can be despatched again. However what occurs as soon as that pattern truly will get right here? NASA and its associate, ESA, are nonetheless engaged on that, however just lately they launched a truth sheet that covers what’s going to occur through the first stage of that course of—returning to the bottom.

That return will happen in the midst of the desert within the western U.S., in an space referred to as the Utah Take a look at and Coaching Vary (UTTR). Whereas this will likely appear to be 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 out there all through the nation. NASA is the most certainly candidate to have the ability to marshal all of the sources essential to quarantine the pattern to maintain it separate from the broader Earth surroundings, which might assist eradicate the (admittedly unlikely) occasion of a Martian superbug getting on the unfastened.

Safe containment is without doubt one of the causes the company is foregoing a water touchdown. Doing so would reduce the influence on the samples, nevertheless it additionally would have a slight probability that the capsule might 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 is usually already restricted air space, as it’s the web site of loads of rocket and airplane testing. Being remoted additionally implies that the capsule is much less more likely to influence something vital if one thing goes unsuitable with the trajectory.

That can be significantly vital given the strategy of touchdown chosen for the MSR capsule. It’ll fall to the bottom utilizing solely aero-braking—no parachute required. Subsequently, will probably be going considerably quicker than the standard parachute-assisted capsule returns. However, in keeping with NASA’s calculations, the samples and their containers ought to survive the influence. 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 influence 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 sequence 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 subsequent step can be safely transporting them to a laboratory the place they are often correctly studied. That’s, in spite of everything, the entire function of the Mars Pattern Return mission. To date, that a part of this system hasn’t been outlined but, however understanding that the samples will find yourself in the midst of the Utah desert is not less than a spot to start out.