iMars Takes Steps for Mars Sample Return
“Exploration is gaining momentum year by year, as is the experience and knowledge gained by ESA and its international partners in this area” said Bruno Gardini ESA’s Exploration Programme Manager in the Directorate of Human Spaceflight and iMARS study leader. “The information we gain from current Mars missions and from the ISS provide a basis not only for future robotic missions but also a stepping stone for the human exploration missions.”
The iMars Working Group, the International Mars Architecture for the Return of Samples, is the International Mars Exploration Working Group of scientists, engineers, strategic planners, and managers who have outlined a report over many months for the scientific and engineering requirements for 2020 to 2022. A 1993 team dedicated to developing plans and seeking recommendations to launch the first mission to Mars in order to bring soil samples back to Earth, they feel that the ability to study soil from Mars on Earth will contribute to the unknown of the red planet.
With NASA hosting the meeting, a task force met last year to lay the foundations for this venture with representative from ESA, NASA, CSA (Canadian Space Agency), and JAXA (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. A mission focusing on future exploration goals in addition to establishing a future human mission to Mars, iMARS has as its goal the returning of samples from the red planet in order to increase the knowledge of Martian soil properties, contributing hugely to finding out whether or not there is a possibility of life on Mars. iMars also feels that this mission will improve our understanding of the environment on Mars, supporting a plan for its future human exploration.
The mission’s objectives by the iMars report:
• Outlines the types and quantities of returned samples from Mars
• Outlines different mission elements—launchers, spacecraft, Mars lander, a rove, and a Mars ascent vehicle
• Outlines ground processing facilities necessary to contain and analyze the received samples in a protected environment
• Outlines a preliminary timeline for the mission
• Outlines an approximate budget for the mission
This entry was posted on Saturday, July 19th, 2008 at 1:00 am and is filed under Space Agency News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
