Cold Environment Test Campaign of Face Seal Candidates for the Mars Sample Return’s Secondary Containment Vessel

The paper breaks down the exploration of implementing face seals for locking interfaces in space applications. These efforts were undertaken at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the planned Mars Sample Return Campaign. The hardware in which the face seals were contained would spend years orbiting Mars and would eventually return to Earth along with the Mars samples. Due to the extended duration of the hardware being in Martian orbit, the mission environment needed to be simulated to understand the capabilities of the face seal. To achieve this objective, two testing campaigns were devised to characterize the leak rate and the compression force of various face seal types. The testing campaign will identify the effects of cold environments on seal performance. The test data will inform design decisions to ensure a robust seal was made and maintained under flight conditions.