Systems Engineering for the Mars Sample Return Mission

Information:

Mars Sample Return was formed as a collaboration mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to return a sample of the Martian surface to Earth by 2030, providing significant scientific benefits, without the inherent risks or costs of a human-assisted mission. ESA commissioned the Mars Sample Return Architecture Study (MSRAS) from late 2017 to early 2018 as part of their General Studies Program (GSP) to gather feasible mission scenarios for the Mars Sample Return Orbiter (MSRO) system, due for launch in the late-2020s. Deimos Spain, Lockheed Martin UK and MDA Canada were contracted during the MSRAS to provide mission analysis, spacecraft systems engineering and payload design, respectively.

The aim of this presentation is to introduce the topic of sample return missions and Mars Sample Return (MSR), describe the systems engineering undertaken within the Mars Sample Return Architecture Study (MSRAS) and outline the key findings of the MSRAS put forward for formal review.

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