Mars Sample Return Options

[Rakhir]

Next phase reached in definition of Mars Sample Return mission

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMJAGNFGLE_index_0.html

[volcanopele]

I will say one good thing about this and that they finally solved my biggest complaint: why have another rover/helicopter to deliver samples to the MAV when you have a perfectly good rover that can get you most of the way there. Yes, that depends on Percy surviving until then, but it would eliminate some of the duplication of effort. That being said, why not just have the MAV land at Midway and let the rover complete its mission of collecting samples between where it is now and there?

[mcaplinger]

why not just have the MAV land at Midway and let the rover complete its mission of collecting samples between where it is now and there?

"It was concluded by the MIRT technical/architecture team that Midway is inaccessible as a landing site".

The helicopter was a not-unreasonable bit of redundancy that didn't seem like it was a big cost/mass driver. Losing the helicopter because they insisted on adding an RTG doesn't seem like progress to me. But it's pretty obvious that this whole mission is toast now anyway.

[StargazeInWonder]

The original sin here really goes back (at least) to when Perseverance was in the planning stages and the caching was added. That decision raised my eyebrows, not as an obvious mistake but as a weird malleability in the planning process, putting tactics before strategy. From at least that point forward, there's been this weird blend between two or more possible future plans, and the consequences of that are what we're seeing now.