Mission to bring back soil samples from Mars gets 2018 launch

In the most optimistic scenario, a US Atlas A 551 rocket would lift off in 2018 carrying a mobile rover -- or alternatively, a non-mobile lander -- that would be dropped down to Mars to pick up samples selected to give the broadest picture possible of the planet's geological past. Included in the package would be a small rocket, a Mars Ascent Vehicle, that would later blast off with the sample onboard.

by Staff Writers

Paris (AFP) July 9, 2008

Space experts on Wednesday set a date of 2018 for launching the Mars Sample Return mission, billed as the most complex and costliest exploration of the Red Planet ever planned.

The unmanned mission aims to pick up soil and rocks from Mars and bring them back to Earth, where big labs can wring far more data from them than by remote control using small instruments on a scout vehicle.

"2018 will start the era of Mars Sample Return," Doug Mc Cuistion, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Programme, told a press conference.

The preliminary report, issued in Paris by a working group, sketched a mission profile and flight design but also cautioned that many challenges lay ahead.

Its authors said that, regardless of the start date, it would take five years for the precious 500-gramme (1.1-pound) sample to be brought back to Earth and space powers had to pool resources to achieve the extraordinary goal.

Stephane Janichewski, deputy director of France's National Centre for Space Studies (Cnes) said "at least a transatlantic cooperation" was needed between Europe and the United States to fulfil this "very challenging" project.

"It's a sort of (Holy) Grail we are looking for," said Janichewski, referring to the project's scope.

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