Lockheed Martin Bags NASA Contract to Make Rocket, Bring Mars’ First Samples to Earth

NASA has awarded Lockheed Martin's space business a contract to develop the rocket to deliver the first Mars rock samples to Earth in the 2030s.

The space agency claimed in a statement per NDTV that the compact, lightweight rocket" will be the first to launch from another planet, carrying back "rock, soil, and air samples from the surface of the Red Planet."

Since arriving on Earth's neighbor a year ago, NASA's Perseverance Rover has gathered samples from diverse Martian locations.

The samples will be collected and sent back to Earth in a complicated operation, including a Lockheed Martin rocket.

According to NASA, this "Mars Ascent Vehicle" contract might be worth $194 million.

NASA Grants Lockheed Martin Contract to Create the MAV for Mars Retrieval Mission

The Mars Ascent Vehicle will be crucial in NASA's future mission to gather rock samples from Mars and the Perseverance rover. According to NASA, they granted Lockheed Martin the contract to build the tiny rocket, which will deliver samples from Mars to Earth.

With the 2020 mission, Lockheed Martin's MAV will launch a lightweight rocket laden with rock samples from Mars back to Earth, fulfilling NASA's first recovery mission. When MAV is in range of the home planet, the mission would also include the European Space Agency to complete the handoff.

According to NASA's plans, the mini-rocket will be sent to Mars in 2026 at the earliest, carrying another rover to gather Perseverance's samples.

The rocket will lift off and place the samples in orbit around Mars after being loaded into it. They'll be taken by another vessel dispatched there to finish the last part of the voyage back to Earth.

NASA has not yet hired humans to travel to Mars, gather the rock samples from Perseverance, and return them to Earth.

The job of Lockheed and the European Space Agency will be to conduct a remote-controlled operation in which robotics and computers finish the procedure while connecting with the home base to complete the rescue mission.

When Engineers Will Start MAV

Lockheed Martin Space, based in Littleton, Colorado, is already working on the lander's aeroshell, as it has on ten prior NASA Mars missions. This month marks the start of a six-year deal of NASA and Lockheed Martin, Orlando Sentinel said. In addition to the final spaceship, the business is required to develop, produce, and test additional ascent vehicle test units.

The spacecraft will be compact and light, fit within the lander, and designed to return to Earth with rock, soil, and atmosphere samples. It will also have to work with the ESA orbiter's Capture, Containment, and Return System payload from NASA.

It has the potential to be the first rocket launched from another planet. There is yet to be a decision on which business will build the lander. The lander will land around or in the Jezero Crater, collaborating with Perseverance to gather the samples.

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