Science and Curation Considerations for the Design of a Mars Sample Return (MSR) Sample Receiving Facility

Brandi Lee Carrier (1) , David Beaty (1) , Aurore Hutzler (2) , Alvin Smith (1) , Gerhard Kminek (2) , Michael Meyer (3) , Timothy Haltigin (4) , Lindsay Hays (3) , Carl Agee (5) , Henner Busemann (6) , Barbara Cavalazzi (7) , Charles Cockell (8) , Vinciane Debaille (9) , Daniel Glavin (10) , Monica Grady (11) , Ernst Hauber (12) , Bernard Marty (13) , Francis Mccubbin (14) , Lisa Pratt (15) , Aaron Regberg (14) , Caroline Smith (16, 17) , Roger Summons (18) , Timothy Swindle (19) , Kimberly Tait (20) , Nicholas Tosca (21) , Arya Udry (22) , Tomohiro Usui (23) , Michael Velbel (24, 25) , Meenakshi Wadhwa (26, 1) , Frances Westall (27) , Maria-Paz Zorzano (28)

1 CALTECH - California Institute of Technology
2 ESA - Agence Spatiale Européenne = European Space Agency
3 NASA Headquarters
4 CSA - Canadian Space Agency
5 The University of New Mexico [Albuquerque]
6 ETH Zürich - Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology [Zürich]
7 UNIBO - Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna = University of Bologna
8 Edin. - University of Edinburgh
9 ULB - Université libre de Bruxelles
10 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
11 OU - The Open University [Milton Keynes]
12 DLR - German Aerospace Center
13 CRPG - Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques
14 JSC - NASA Johnson Space Center
15 Indiana University [Bloomington]
16 NHM - The Natural History Museum [London]
17 University of Glasgow
18 MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
19 University of Arizona
20 Royal Ontario Museum
21 CAM - University of Cambridge [UK]
22 WGU Nevada - University of Nevada [Las Vegas]
23 JAXA - Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency [Tokyo]
24 Michigan State University [East Lansing]
25 Smithsonian Institution
26 ASU - Arizona State University [Tempe]
27 CBM - Centre de biophysique moléculaire
28 University of Aberdeen

The most important single element of the "ground system" portion of a Mars Sample Return (MSR) Campaign is a facility referred to as the Sample Receiving Facility (SRF), which would need to be designed and equipped to receive the returned spacecraft, extract and open the sealed sample container, extract the samples from the sample tubes, and implement a set of evaluations and analyses of the samples. One of the main findings of the first MSR Sample Planning Group (MSPG, 2019a) states that "The scientific community, for reasons of scientific quality, cost, and timeliness, strongly prefers that as many sample-related investigations as possible be performed in PI-led laboratories outside containment." There are many scientific and technical reasons for this preference, including the ability to utilize advanced and customized instrumentation that may be difficult to reproduce inside in a biocontained facility, and the ability to allow multiple science investigators in different labs to perform similar or complementary analyses to confirm the reproducibility and accuracy of results. It is also reasonable to assume that there will be a desire for the SRF to be as efficient and economical as possible, while still enabling the objectives of MSR to be achieved. For these reasons, MSPG concluded, and MSPG2 agrees, that the SRF should be designed to accommodate only those analytical activities that could not reasonably be done in outside laboratories because they are time- or sterilization-sensitive, are necessary for the Sample Safety Assessment Protocol (SSAP), or are necessary parts of the initial sample characterization process that would allow subsamples to be effectively allocated for investigation. All of this must be accommodated in an SRF, while preserving the scientific value of the samples through maintenance of strict environmental and contamination control standards.

Domaines: Planète et Univers [physics]

Brandi Lee Carrier, David Beaty, Aurore Hutzler, Alvin Smith, Gerhard Kminek, et al.. Science and Curation Considerations for the Design of a Mars Sample Return (MSR) Sample Receiving Facility. Astrobiology, 2022, 22 (1), ⟨10.1089/AST.2021.0110⟩. ⟨hal-03671837⟩