Finding the Right Footpad Size for NASA’s Mars Sample Retrieval Lander | #Shorts

The first leg of Mars Sample Return is underway, as Perseverance collects rock cores and other Mars samples at its landing site, Jezero Crater. Meanwhile on Earth, mission teams are optimizing the designs of the follow-on spacecraft that would retrieve these rock samples and bring them to Earth.

In this video, engineers use a special testing rig to focus on the full-scale footpad for the Sample Retrieval Lander. Finding the right size and characteristics for the lander footpads is critical to a safe touchdown. This lander would also serve as a launch platform for the Mars Ascent Vehicle rocket, which would carry the Mars samples collected by the Perseverance rover. The lander legs and footpad need to absorb the impact of the heaviest spacecraft (5,016 pounds or 2,275 kilograms) to touch down on the Red Planet.

Considered one of the highest priorities by the scientists in the Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032, Mars Sample Return would be the first mission to return samples from another planet and provides the best and nearest opportunity to reveal the evolution of planets, life’s beginning in the solar system and the potential for ancient life. NASA is teaming with ESA (European Space Agency) on this important endeavor.

Animation is contributed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the European Space Agency, Goddard Space Flight Center, and Marshall Space Flight Center.

Learn more about Mars Sample Return: https://mars.nasa.gov/msr

Learn more about the Sample Retrieval Lander: https://mars.nasa.gov/msr/spacecraft/sample-retrieval-lander/

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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