Image Credit: NASA/ESA/JPL-Caltech
This illustration shows a concept for a set of future robots working together to ferry back samples from the surface of Mars collected by NASA's Mars Perseverance rover.
NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are solidifying concepts for a Mars sample return mission that would seek to take the samples of Martian rocks and other materials being collected and stored in sealed tubes by NASA's Mars Perseverance rover and return the sealed tubes to Earth.
According to the current concept, NASA would deliver a Mars lander in the vicinity of Jezero Crater, where Perseverance (left) will have collected and cached samples. The Sample Retrieval Lander (right) would carry a NASA rocket (the Mars Ascent Vehicle), along with ESA's Sample Fetch Rover (center) that is roughly the size of the Opportunity Mars rover. The fetch rover would gather the cached samples and carry them back to the lander for transfer to the ascent vehicle; additional samples could also be delivered directly by Perseverance. The ascent vehicle would then launch a special container holding the samples into Mars orbit. ESA would put a spacecraft in orbit around Mars before the ascent vehicle launches. This spacecraft would rendezvous with and capture the orbiting samples before returning them to Earth. NASA would provide the capture and containment payload module for the orbiter.
這張插圖展示了一組未來機器人的概念，這些機器人協同工作，從美國宇航局的火星毅力號火星車收集的火星表面樣本運回。
NASA 和歐洲航天局 (ESA) 正在鞏固火星取樣返回任務的概念，該任務將尋求採集火星岩石和其他材料的樣本，這些樣本由 NASA 的“毅力號”火星探測器收集並儲存在密封管中，並將密封管送回地球.
根據目前的概念，NASA 將在Jezero Crater 附近運送火星著陸器，Perseverance（左）將在那裡收集和快取樣本。 Sample Retrieval Lander（右）將攜帶 NASA 火箭（火星上升飛行器）以及 ESA 的 Sample Fetch Rover（中），其大小與 Opportunity火星探測器大致相同。獲取漫遊器將收集快取的樣本並將它們帶回著陸器以轉移到上升車輛；額外的樣品也可以由 Perseverance 直接提供。然後，上升的飛行器將把一個裝有樣品的特殊容器發射到火星軌道上。在上升飛行器發射之前，歐空局將把一艘宇宙飛船送入火星軌道。該航天器將與軌道樣本會合並捕獲它們，然後再將它們返回地球。NASA 將為軌道飛行器提供捕獲和遏制有效載荷模組。
