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October 31st, 2024
Image credit: CCTV/CNAS/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China’s Mars Sample Return – Ripple Effects at the Red Planet
It appears that China has moved up their agenda for rocketing collectibles from Mars, and ahead of any still-to-be scripted time period for the U.S. to achieve this same goal.
NASA’s Mars sample return plan, as originally orchestrated by the space agency and the European Space Agency, continues to be scrutinized.
China blueprint for Mars sample return mission.
Image credit: Kanyan Xu/COSPAR
The hoped for bottom line at NASA is a blueprint for the Red Planet, one that offers the highest chance of Mars samples on Earth before 2040 and doing so for under an $11 billion price tag.
Meanwhile, China is on an earlier flight path to achieve what scientists call the “holy grail” of Mars exploration.
Take a look at my new Space.com story that takes the pulse of several leading Mars researchers about their thoughts, concerns, and aspirations for hauling back the goods from the Red Planet.
Go to — Will China return Mars samples to Earth before the US does? – “If, as has been reported, China successfully executes even a ‘grab sample’ at Mars and returns it safely to Earth before the U.S., that would constitute a ‘Sputnik Moment'” – at:
https://www.space.com/the-universe/mars/will-china-return-mars-samples-to-earth-before-the-us-does
Posted in Space News
NASA could beat the Chinese MSR goal and claim the prize of the “discovery” of extant life on Mars by simply sending two rovers equipped with life detection instruments focused on looking for active metabolism – similar to the 1976 Viking Labeled Release experiment but with the ability to differentiate between left handed and right handed amino acids – chirality. Also a sending microscope capable of resolving individual microbes would be an important addition to this kind of mission and would lend credibility to the results obtained by the metabolism experiments. This would go a long way to finally render a verdict on what the “unresolved” Viking lander biology experiments found on Mars in 1976. It would also further emphasize the importance of assuring biosafety concerns in returning a sample of Mars to the vicinity of Earth – preferably opened and examined on the moon or in lunar orbit which would provide a fail-safe isolation barrier in the event indigenous Martian microbes are a dangerous invasive species capable of altering earths biosphere.
It is unfortunate that NASA decided to remove its Planetary Protection Officer from their post because of filing a whistle blower report showing bio-safety concerns with the Perseverance rover sample return tubes along with other bio-safety issues. This report should have been one of the biggest space science stories yet written, however only the online link to the report exist. Here is is for people wanting to read it:
https://osc.gov/Documents/Public%20Files/FY23/DI-000239;%20DI-21-000325/DI-21-000239%20-%20WB%20Comments_Redacted.pdf
Barry