Mars Sample Return: The next step in exploring the Red Planet

July 2, 2008
Mars Sample Return: The next step in exploring the Red Planet

Artist's view of the Mars Sample Return (MSR) ascent module lifting off from Mars' surface with the Martian soil samples. Credits: ESA

ESA and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) will be co-hosting, in cooperation with NASA and the International Mars Exploration Working Group (IMEWG), an International Conference on 9 and 10 July in the Auditorium of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris to discuss the next step in the exploration of Mars.

We are still collecting data under NASA's Phoenix, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Exploration Rover and Mars Odyssey missions, as well as under ESA's Mars Express mission, as we prepare for even more exciting missions to come, notably NASA's Mars Science Laboratory and ESA's ExoMars. Mars exploration is continuing at a steady pace and future missions will integrate scientific payloads and technologies that will eventually serve the ultimate goal of carrying out a manned mission to Mars.

The international community has for a long time agreed that the next imperative step, one which will exponentially increase our knowledge and understanding of the Red Planet and its environment, is a Sample Return Mission.

International cooperation is increasingly being regarded as an enabling element of space exploration, especially when it comes to challenging endeavours.

These two factors – the compelling next step in the exploration of Mars and international cooperation – prompted the IMEWG to decide to set up an ad hoc international committee to study an international architecture for a Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission concept.

After several months of collective work by scientists and engineers from several countries worldwide, the "iMARS" group is ready to publish the outcome of its deliberations and the envisioned common architecture for a future international MSR mission.

The International Mars Sample Return Conference will thus bring together members of the scientific and industrial communities as well as representatives of space agencies around the world to discuss the status and prospects for Mars exploration over the coming decades. The Conference will feature keynote addresses from scientist Steve Squyres of Cornell University, principal investigator under the MER mission, and Jean-Pierre Bibring of the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, principal investigator for a key instrument on Mars Express.

The European and international Media are invited to attend this two-day gathering, where they will have the opportunity to hear the current international thinking on Mars Sample Return and to interact with key players in the global endeavour of exploring and understanding Mars – which remains the ultimate goal of human space exploration.

Source: European Space Agency

3.4 /5 (5 votes)  

Rank 3.4 /5 (5 votes)
Related Stories
Relevant PhysicsForums posts
  • Scale of the Universe
    created12 hours ago
  • Titan's lack of impact craters
    createdFeb 09, 2012
  • Real pictures of black hole eating a star?
    createdFeb 08, 2012
  • Hypothetical way to travel faster than light, but not technically exceed lightspeed
    createdFeb 06, 2012
  • How do scientists monitor the Sun's activity?
    createdFeb 05, 2012
  • Search patterns in observational studies
    createdFeb 05, 2012
  • More from Physics Forums - General Astronomy

More news stories

Humans may have helped the decline of African rainforests 3000 years ago

(PhysOrg.com) -- Large areas of rainforests in Central Africa mysteriously disappeared over three thousand years ago, to be replaced by savannas. The prevailing theory has been that the cause was a change ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Feb 10, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (13) | comments 13 | with audio podcast report

Could Venus be shifting gear?

(PhysOrg.com) -- ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft has discovered that our cloud-covered neighbour spins a little slower than previously measured. Peering through the dense atmosphere in the infrared, the ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created 20 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 8 | with audio podcast

NASA budget will axe Mars deal with Europe: scientists

US President Barack Obama's budget proposal to be submitted next week for 2013 will cut NASA's budget by 20 percent and eliminate a major partnership with Europe on Mars exploration, scientists said Thursday.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created 23 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 20

Mars Science Laboratory computer issue resolved

(PhysOrg.com) -- Engineers have found the root cause of a computer reset that occurred two months ago on NASA's Mars Science Laboratory and have determined how to correct it.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created 21 hours ago | popularity 4.7 / 5 (6) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Two new moons for Jupiter

Advances in technology have lead to the discovery of new planets outside of our Solar System, and now even new moons in our own backyard.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created 20 hours ago | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 7


Anonymous knocks CIA website offline (Update)

The website of the Central Intelligence Agency was inaccessible on Friday after the hacker group Anonymous claimed to have knocked it offline.

New error-correcting codes guarantee the fastest possible rate of data transmission

Error-correcting codes are one of the triumphs of the digital age. They’re a way of encoding information so that it can be transmitted across a communication channel — such as an optical fiber o ...

Small modular reactor design could be a 'SUPERSTAR'

(PhysOrg.com) -- Though most of today's nuclear reactors are cooled by water, we've long known that there are alternatives; in fact, the world's first nuclear-powered electricity in 1951 came from a reactor ...

New power source discovered

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and RMIT University have made a breakthrough in energy storage and power generation.

The power of estrogen -- male snakes attract other males

A new study has shown that boosting the estrogen levels of male garter snakes causes them to secrete the same pheromones that females use to attract suitors, and turned the males into just about the sexiest ...

Google users warned of threat to smartphone wallets

Users of Google smartphone wallets were being warned on Friday that there is a way to crack pass codes intended to thwart thieves from going on illicit shopping sprees.