Science Objectives for Mars Sample Return

SCIENCE OBJECTIVES FOR MARS SAMPLE RETURN. Prepared by the MSR Campaign Science Group (MCSG) with Chairs, G. Kminek1, L. E. Hays2, Members, D. W. Beaty3, E. Sefton-Nash1, B. L. Carrier3, F. Thiessen1, T. Haltigin1,4, A. Bouvier5, A. D. Czaja6, N. Dauphas7, K. L. French8, L. J. Hallis9, R. L. Harris2,10,11, E. Hauber12, L. E. Rodriguez13, S. P. Schwenzer14, A. Steele15, K. T. Tait16, M. T. Thorpe17,18, T. Usui19, J. Vanhomwegen20, M. A. Velbel21, M.-P. Zorzano22, S. Edwin23, K. A. Farley24, D. P. Glavin17, A. D. Harrington25, A. Hutzler1, and M. Wadhwa3,26, 1European Space Agency, ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands, 2NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C., USA, 3Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA, 4Canadian Space Agency, St. Hubert, Quebec, Canada, 5University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany, 6University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, 7University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA, 8U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado, USA, 9University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK, 10Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, 11Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Oak Ridge, Tennessee USA, 12German Aerospace Center (DLR), Berlin, Germany, 13Lunar and Planetary Institute, Universities Space Research Association, Houston, Texas, USA, 14The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK, 15Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, D.C., USA, 16Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 17NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA, 18University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA, 19Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Tokyo, Japan, 20Institut Pasteur, Paris, France, 21Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA, 22Centro de Astrobiologia (CAB), CSIC-INTA, Madrid, Spain, 23Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 24California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA, 25NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, USA, 26Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA. Introduction: The joint NASA/ESA Mars Sample Return (MSR) Campaign has a goal of returning a carefully selected cache of samples collected from Jezero crater, Mars. These samples are currently being collected by the Mars 2020 mission Perseverance rover (the first flight element of MSR; https://science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-2020-perseverance/mars-rock-samples/). Under the currently planned architecture, MSR has the potential to return up to 30 samples, including igneous rocks, sedimentary rocks, regolith, and atmosphere. MSR would fulfill one of the highest priority solar system exploration goals from the planetary science and astrobiology communities [1]. Once the samples have been returned to Earth, the MSR Sample Receiving Project (SRP) would support detailed scientific investigations, both within and outside of containment, to significantly advance our understanding of Mars, our solar system, and prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. Building upon previous efforts that enumerated the science goals and objectives of MSR [2-4], the MSR Campaign Science Group (MCSG) was tasked with defining the scientific objectives of the SRP. Here, we detail four overarching objectives, each with several subobjectives that would transform our understanding of the geological and astrobiological history of Mars and our solar system.

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