Washington. July 27. INTERFAX - The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) have abandoned a plan to send two landers to the surface of Mars as part of a joint program to deliver samples of Martian soil to Earth in 2033, now only one lander will go to the Red Planet, the US government reported on Wednesday. the space agency.
"The program for the return of soil samples from Mars no longer includes the Sample Fetch Rover and the associated second lander," the agency said in a statement on its website.
Earlier, NASA and ESA planned to send two landing modules to Mars, one of which would house the European Sample Fetch Rover to collect containers with soil samples collected by the Perseverance rover, and the other would have a Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) rocket to send soil into orbit and a robotic arm to load containers into the rocket..
According to the department, NASA specialists analyzed the system requirements of the program, and also analyzed the possibility of increasing the service life of the Perseverance rover operating on Mars. Based on the results of the assessment, they decided to use Perseverance in 2030 to transport soil samples to the lander for further sending containers into orbit.
Now it is planned that only one module with a Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) rocket and a robotic arm will land on the surface of the Red Planet. After the "hand" puts the sample containers into the rocket, MAV will enter the orbit of the planet, where it will release a container, which will then catch the ESA Earth Return Orbiter probe to return to Earth together with the collected samples in 2033.
Two drone helicopters will also be placed on the landing module, which will be designed on the basis of the Ingenuity helicopter, which has so far made 29 flights over the surface of Mars and exceeded its planned service life by a year. It is assumed that they can be used as a backup option for transporting containers with soil, in case the main mission plan becomes impossible.
The report notes that the launch dates of the mission are scheduled for autumn 2027 and summer 2028, the arrival of samples to Earth is planned for 2033.
The Perseverance rover with the Ingenuity helicopter made a successful landing on the surface of the Red Planet on February 18 last year.
