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By Space Force
U.S. Space Forces - Space supports NASA human space flight by planning, integrating, executing, and assessing space operations, providing continuous space situational awareness monitoring for the International Space Station and visiting spacecraft.
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By NASA
Mars Sample Return MSR Home Mission Concept Overview Perseverance Rover Sample Retrieval Lander Mars Ascent Vehicle Sample Recovery Helicopters Earth Return Orbiter Science Overview Bringing Mars Samples to Earth Mars Rock Samples MSR Science Community Member Sign up News and Features Multimedia Images Videos Audio More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions The Solar System The Sun Mercury Venus Earth The Moon Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto & Dwarf Planets Asteroids, Comets & Meteors The Kuiper Belt The Oort Cloud 4 min read
New Team to Assess NASA’s Mars Sample Return Architecture Proposals
NASA announced Wednesday a new strategy review team will assess potential architecture adjustments for the agency’s Mars Sample Return Program, which aims to bring back scientifically selected samples from Mars, and is a key step in NASA’s quest to better understand our solar system and help answer whether we are alone in the universe.
Earlier this year, the agency commissioned design studies from the NASA community and eight selected industry teams on how to return Martian samples to Earth in the 2030s while lowering the cost, risk, and mission complexity. The new strategy review team will assess 11 studies conducted by industry, a team across NASA centers, the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. The team will recommend to NASA a primary architecture for the campaign, including associated cost and schedule estimates.
“Mars Sample Return will require a diversity of opinions and ideas to do something we’ve never done before: launch a rocket off another planet and safely return samples to Earth from more than 33 million miles away,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “It is critical that Mars Sample Return is done in a cost-effective and efficient way, and we look forward to learning the recommendations from the strategy review team to achieve our goals for the benefit of humanity.”
Returning samples from Mars has been a major long-term goal of international planetary exploration for more than three decades, and the Mars Sample Return Program is jointly planned with ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Perseverance rover is collecting compelling science samples that will help scientists understand the geological history of Mars, the evolution of its climate, and potential hazards for future human explorers. Retrieval of the samples also will help NASA’s search for signs of ancient life.
The team’s report is anticipated by the end of 2024 and will examine options for a complete mission design, which may be a composite of multiple studied design elements. The team will not recommend specific acquisition strategies or partners. The strategy review team has been chartered under a task to the Cornell Technical Services contract. The team may request input from a NASA analysis team that consists of government employees and expert consultants. The analysis team also will provide programmatic input such as a cost and schedule assessment of the architecture recommended by the strategy review team.
The Mars Sample Return Strategy Review Team is led by Jim Bridenstine, former NASA administrator, and includes the following members:
Greg Robinson, former program director, James Webb Space Telescope Lisa Pratt, former planetary protection officer, NASA Steve Battel, president, Battel Engineering; Professor of Practice, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Phil Christensen, regents professor, School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe Eric Evans, director emeritus and fellow, MIT Lincoln Lab Jack Mustard, professor of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Science, Brown University Maria Zuber, E. A. Griswold professor of Geophysics and presidential advisor for science and technology policy, MIT The NASA Analysis Team is led by David Mitchell, chief program management officer at NASA Headquarters, and includes the following members:
John Aitchison, program business manager (acting), Mars Sample Return Brian Corb, program control/schedule analyst, NASA Headquarters Steve Creech, assistant deputy associate administrator for Technical, Moon to Mars Program Office, NASA Headquarters Mark Jacobs, senior systems engineer, NASA Headquarters Rob Manning, chief engineer emeritus, NASA JPL Mike Menzel, senior engineer, NASA Goddard Fernando Pellerano, senior advisor for Systems Engineering, NASA Goddard Ruth Siboni, chief of staff, Moon to Mars Program Office, NASA Headquarters Bryan Smith, director of Facilities, Test and Manufacturing, NASA Glenn Ellen Stofan, under secretary for Science and Research, Smithsonian For more information on NASA’s Mars Sample Return, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-sample-return
Dewayne Washington
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
dewayne.a.washington@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Oct 16, 2024 Related Terms
Mars Mars Sample Return (MSR) Missions Explore More
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By NASA
Members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission from right to left, NASA astronauts Jeanette Epps, mission specialist; Matthew Dominick, commander; Michael Barratt, pilot; and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, mission specialist; participate in the Crew Equipment Interface Test at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Friday, Jan. 12, 2024. SpaceX NASA and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than 7:05 a.m. EDT Sunday, Oct. 13, for the agency’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission to undock from the International Space Station. Pending weather conditions, the earliest splashdown time is targeted for 3:38 p.m. Monday, Oct. 14, at one of the multiple zones available off the coast of Florida.
NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, are completing a seven-month science expedition aboard the orbiting laboratory and will return important and time-sensitive research to Earth.
Mission managers continue monitoring weather conditions in the area, as Dragon’s undocking depends on various factors, including spacecraft readiness, recovery team readiness, weather, sea states, and other factors. NASA will select a specific splashdown time and location closer to the Crew-8 spacecraft undocking.
Watch Crew-8 return activities on NASA+. Learn how to stream NASA content through a variety of additional platforms, including social media. For schedule information, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/live
For the planned Oct. 13 undocking, NASA’s live return operations coverage is as follows (all times Eastern and subject to change based on real-time operations):
Sunday, Oct. 13
5 a.m. – Hatch closure coverage begins on NASA+
5:30 a.m. – Hatch closing
6:45 a.m. – Undocking coverage begins on NASA+
7:05 a.m. – Undocking
Following the conclusion of undocking, NASA coverage will switch to audio only.
Pending weather conditions at the splashdown sites, continuous coverage will resume Oct. 14, on NASA+ prior to the start of deorbit burn.
Monday, Oct. 14
2:30 p.m. – Return coverage begins on NASA+
2:53 p.m. – Deorbit burn (time is approximate)
3:38 p.m. – Splashdown (time is approximate)
5:15 p.m. – Return to Earth media teleconference with the following participants:
Richard Jones, deputy manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Bill Spetch, operations and integration manager, NASA’s International Space Station Program William Gerstenmaier, vice president, Build & Flight Reliability, SpaceX To participate in the teleconference, media must contact the NASA Johnson newsroom by 3 p.m. Oct. 14 at: jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov or 281-483-5111. To ask questions, media must dial in no later than 10 minutes before the start of the call. The agency’s media credentialing policy is available online.
Find full mission coverage, NASA’s commercial crew blog, and more information about the Crew-8 mission at:
https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew
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Jimi Russell / Claire O’Shea
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
james.j.russell@nasa.gov / claire.a.o’shea@nasa.gov
Raegan Scharfetter / Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
raegan.r.scharfetter@nasa.gov / sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov
Steve Siceloff / Danielle Sempsrott
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-867-2468
steven.p.siceloff@nasa.gov / danielle.c.sempsrott@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Oct 11, 2024 LocationKennedy Space Center Related Terms
Humans in Space Astronauts Commercial Space International Space Station (ISS) ISS Research Missions View the full article
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By NASA
NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson, along with Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, return to Earth after completing their mission to the International Space Station.Credit: NASA NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson completed a six-month research mission aboard the International Space Station on Monday, returning to Earth with Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub.
The trio departed the space station aboard the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft at 4:36 a.m. EDT Monday, Sept. 23, making a safe, parachute-assisted landing at 7:59 a.m. (4:59 p.m. Kazakhstan time), southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan.
While aboard the orbiting laboratory, Dyson conducted multiple scientific and technology activities including the operation of a 3D bioprinter to print cardiac tissue samples, which could advance technology for creating replacement organs and tissues for transplants on Earth. Dyson also participated in the crystallization of model proteins to evaluate the performance of hardware that could be used for pharmaceutical production and ran a program that used student-designed software to control the station’s free-flying robots, inspiring the next generation of innovators.
Dyson launched on March 23 and arrived at the station March 25 alongside Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus. Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya were aboard the station for 12 days before returning home with NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara on April 6.
Spanning 184 days in space, Dyson’s third spaceflight covered 2,944 orbits of the Earth and a journey of 78 million miles as an Expedition 70/71 flight engineer. Dyson also conducted one spacewalk of 31 minutes, bringing her career total to 23 hours, 20 minutes on four spacewalks.
Kononenko and Chub, who launched with O’Hara to the station on the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft last September, spent 374 days in space on a trip of 158.6 million miles, spanning 5,984 orbits. Kononenko completed his fifth flight into space, accruing a record of 1,111 days in orbit, and Chub completed his first spaceflight.
Following post-landing medical checks, the crew will return to the recovery staging city in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. Dyson will then board a NASA plane bound for the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Learn more about space station activities by following @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook, ISS Instagram, and the space station blog.
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Claire O’Shea / Julian Coltre
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
claire.a.o’shea@nasa.gov / julian.n.coltre@nasa.gov
Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Sep 23, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
International Space Station (ISS) Astronauts Humans in Space ISS Research Johnson Space Center Tracy Caldwell Dyson View the full article
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