Mars Ascent Vehicle Launch with Examples: This illustration shows a concept of how the NASA Mars Ascent Vehicle, which carries tubes containing rock and soil samples, can be launched from the surface of Mars in one step of the Mars monster return mission. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech. Full image and caption ›
The award takes NASA and ESA one step closer to realizing Mars Sample Return, an ambitious planetary exploration program that builds on decades of science, knowledge and experience.
NASA has awarded the Mars Ascent Propulsion System (MAPS) contract to Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation of Elkton, Maryland, to provide propulsion support and products for space flight missions at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Coupled with the successful landing of the Mars Perseverance rover, this award brings NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) one step closer to realizing Mars Sample Return (MSR), a highly ambitious planetary exploration program that will build on decades of science. , knowledge, and experience with Mars exploration.
The contract with an additional cost and a fixed fee has a potential value of the mission services of $ 60.2 million and a maximum potential value of $ 84.5 million. The contract will commence on Thursday, March 4, with a 14-month base period, followed by two option periods that can be exercised at NASA’s discretion.
In the next steps of the MSR campaign, NASA and ESA will provide components for a Sample Retrieval Lander mission and an Earth Return Orbiter mission. The Sample Retrieval Lander mission will bring a Sample Fetch Rover and Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) to the surface of Mars. Marshall is responsible for the MAV element of the MSR program, a two-phase vehicle that will be a critical element in supporting MSR in the collection and return of the samples that the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover will collect for return to the earth. The Martian environment will be an important factor in the design, development, manufacture, testing and qualification of two different solid rocket engines with multiple deliveries of each. Through the MAPS contract, Northrop Grumman will provide the propulsion systems for the MAV, as well as other ancillary equipment and logistics services.
By returning Mars samples to Earth, scientists around the world will be able to examine the specimens using advanced instruments too large and complex to send to Mars, and future generations will be able to study them using technology that is not yet available. By putting together the monsters on Earth, the scientific community can test new theories and models as they are developed, much like the Apollo monsters that returned from the moon have been doing for decades.
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News Media Contacts
Gray Gravestone / Alana Johnson / Joshua Handal
NASA headquarters, Washington
202-358-0668 / 202-358-1501 / 202-358-2307
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Janet Sudnik
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-544-1216
[email protected]