What is Mars Ascent Vehicle and how will it bring rocks from Mars to Earth?
As part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, a rover named Perseverance and a small, robotic and coaxial helicopter named Ingenuity have been hovering around the surface Mars since July 2020 in order to find signs of ancient microbial life on the red planet. Recently, the space agency has announced that it is ready to bring back samples from the red planet onto the Earth.
For this reason, NASA, in collaboration with US based The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) an R&D centre founded by the space agency, has entered a contract with a US-based aerospace, arms, defence, information security, and technology corporation, called Lockheed Martin to build a Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV). This space vehicle is supposed to bring back rock and regolith samples (a layer of unconsolidated solid material covering the bedrock of a planet) from Mars allowing scientists here to study and analyse them. Here’s what we know so far about this Mars Ascent Vehicle that is all set to launch in 2026.
What is Mars Ascent Vehicle or MAV?
MAV or Mars Ascent Vehicle is a tiny, lightweight rocket that will be used to launch samples of rocks, sediments and other atmospheric particles from the surface of Mars. MAV is significant in the sense that it is the first ever rocket to be launched on another planetary surface as part of a sample return mission.
The mission includes transporting the MAV to Mars before it blasts away from the surface after collecting the necessary samples. According to media reports, MAV will be carried to Mars with the help of a space transport vehicle called Sample Retrieval Lander (SRL). It will land near or in the Jezero crater of the red planet in order to collect the samples stored by NASA’s life-hunting robot, Perseverance rover.
Following this, the samples will be returned to the SRL that will in turn act as the launch platform to send MAV back on earth. As soon as the sample container will be secured, MAV will be launched back for the home planet.
As of now, Lockheed Martin has decided to provide multiple MAV tests as well as flight units for trial launches.
What will happen after MAV initiates its return journey from Mars?
Once MAV lifts off from the surface of Mars and reaches its orbit, the sample container will be taken over by the European Space Agency’s Earth Return Orbiter Spacecraft in collaboration with NASA’s Return System Payload Vehicle (that includes its Capture & Containment Device). Following this, the spacecrafts will set out on their return journey for earth and is expected to arrive on the blue planet in early 2030s.
What is the objective behind this mission?
The objective behind this Mars Sample Return Program is to fulfil inter-planetary science research and demonstrate the commitment of global space communities to stay engaged in exploration and discovery of the space. This first of its kind robotic round-trip mission to retrieve samples from a foreign planet will also prove as a significant step for future manned Martian missions.