Concept drawing of Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) transporting the sample return container into orbit (Photo: Marshall Space Flight Center/NASA)
Lockheed Martin Space is going to build the rocket NASA will use to bring rock, sediment, and atmospheric samples from Mars back to Earth.
Set to be the first rocket fired off another planet, the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) is crucial to retrieving specimens collected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Perseverance rover.
"Committing to the Mars Ascent Vehicle represents an early and concrete step to hammer out the details of this ambitious project not just to land on Mars, but to take off from it," according to Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA.
Carried by NASA's Sample Retrieval Lander, MAV will fly to the Red Planet, landing near or in Jezero Crater. Once there it will gather Perseverance's all-important cache before heading back to Earth. Scientists expect the samples to return home in the early-to-mid 2030s.
"We are nearing the end of the conceptual phase for this Mars Sample Return mission, and the pieces are coming together to bring home the first samples from another planet," Zurbuchen said. "Once on Earth, they can be studied by state-of-the-art tools too complex to transport into space."
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That's easier said than done, though, and MAV faces "complex development challenges," according to NASA. Lockheed Martin Space will provide multiple MAV test units and a flight unit, all of which must be robust yet adaptable and able to withstand the harsh Martian environment. The ascent vehicle should also be small enough to fit inside the Sample Retrieval Lander—planned for launch no earlier than 2026.
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