Space is the Place (1 Viewer)

That NASA intends to collect a sample from Mars and return it to Earth is well known — they’ve said so many times. But how would they go about scooping up soil from the surface of a distant planet and getting it back here? With a plan that sounds straight out of sci-fi.

Described by the project’s lead scientist in a virtual meeting reported by Nature, NASA and the European Space Agency’s proposed Mars sample retrieval program is perhaps the most ambitious interplanetary mission ever devised. (I’ve asked NASA for more details and will update this post if I hear back.)

The first part of the plan is already public: It relies on the Mars Perseverance rover, which is currently being prepared, despite the pandemic, for its launch in July. Perseverance will perform sampling using a drill and soil scoop, filling 30 small tubes with the results of its Martian delvings and storing them on board.

The next step is where things start to get wild.

 

Would they not just use the Earth's gravity to slingshot a spaceship around towards Mars, then get Perseverance to boost itself into orbit to rendezvous with that spacecraft, then someone on the spacecraft can do a spacewalk out to grab it before they shoot past each other? That's what I'd do
 
actually this is probably a better stream

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not long now

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yeah even though it was a tiny white dot shooing by the moon it was a bit exciting. we enjoyed it. well i did, herself is practically blind so no amount of pointing at it was helpful apparently
 
i was out trying to get the kid to come back inside "look, it's too early and it's not dark enough, it's going to be too low in the sky and look at all the clouds down there... oh there's the ISS now, yes very good"
 
yeah even though it was a tiny white dot shooing by the moon it was a bit exciting. we enjoyed it. well i did, herself is practically blind so no amount of pointing at it was helpful apparently

next time get a neighbour to fling a dinner plate past the front of the house. #inclusiveness
 

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