Mars Sample Return: From collection to curation of samples from a habitable world

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Mccubbin, Francis M.; Farley, Kenneth A.; Harrington, Andrea D.; Hutzler, Aurore; Smith, Caroline L.
• 署名单位: National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA); NASA Johnson Space Center; National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA); NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL); California Institute of Technology; California Institute of Technology; European Space Agency; European Space Research & Technology Centre; Natural History Museum London; University of Glasgow
• 刊物名称: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0027-12264
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2404253121
• 发表日期: 2025-01-14
• 关键词: science; origin; earth; chronology; accretion; EVOLUTION; moon

摘要

NASA's Mars 2020 mission has initiated collection of samples from Mars' Jezero Crater, which has a wide range of ancient rocks and rock types from lavas to lacustrine sedimentary rocks. The Mars Sample Return (MSR) Campaign, ajoint effort between NASA and ESA, aims to bring the Perseverance collection back to Earth for intense scientific investigation. As the first return of samples from a habitable world, there are important challenges to overcome for the successful implementation of the MSR Campaign from the point of sample collection on Mars to the long- term curation of the samples on Earth. In particular, the successful execution of planetary protection protocols adds well- warranted complexity to every step of the process from the two MSR Program flight elements to the ground element at the sample receiving facility (SRF). In this contribution, we describe the architecture of the MSR Campaign, with a focus on infrastructure needs for the curation (i.e., the clean storage, processing, and allocation) of pristine Martian samples. Curation is a science- enabling and planetary protection- enabling activity, and the curation practices described in this contribution for the SRF and any long- term curation facility will enable the sample safety assessment, initial scientific investigations of the samples, and establish the MSR collection as a scientific resource that will enable generations of science and discovery through studies of the returned Mars samples. The planetary protection and curation processes established for MSR will provide critical insights into potential future sample return missions from other habitable worlds like Enceladus and Europa.