2007 MSR orbiter demonstration mission
- Paper ID
IAF-01-Q.3.A.08
- author
- company
Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES)
- country
France
- year
2001
- abstract
A Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission has been proposed as an international (CNES, NASA, ASI) effort in the ongoing Mars Exploration Program. The MSR mission is under design to return the first samples of Martian soil to Earth within the next decade. Among the new techniques that could be required to achieve this ambitious mission, CNES and NASA have decided to test the most challenging, which are aerocapture and sample rendezvous and capture, during a dedicated mission to be launched in 2007. This paper presents the aerocapture demonstration scenario in the 2007 mission, the way it feeds forwards the MSR mission, and finally the design of the Orbiter, which is planned to be developed for both missions.