Final Report of the MSR Science Planning Group 2 (MSPG2)

The currently envisioned Mars Sample Return (MSR) Campaign is one of the most ambitious planetary exploration undertakings ever attempted. Scientifically selected samples collected by NASA’s Mars 2020 would be returned to the Earth through the joint efforts of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). Upon delivery to Earth, the samples would be made available to the international science community to conduct investigations addressing some of the most fundamental questions about the formation and evolution of the solar system, and potentially the origins of life. Beginning with Mars 2020 operations, the MSR Campaign must meet a series of scientific and technical achievements to be successful. While the respective engineering responsibilities to retrieve the samples have been formalized through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between ESA and NASA, the roles and responsibilities of the scientific elements have yet to be fully defined. To aid in the process, ESA and NASA jointly chartered the MSR Science Planning Group 2 (MSPG2). The group’s overarching aims were to build upon previous planning efforts in defining 1) an end-to-end MSR Science Program, highlighting a number of important issues that would influence the development and implementation of this Science Program, and 2) needed functionalities and design requirements for an MSR Sample Receiving Facility (SRF). The challenges for the first samples brought from another planet include not only maintaining and providing samples in pristine condition for study, but also maintaining biological containment until the samples are demonstrated to meet sample safety criteria for distribution outside of biocontainment. To maximize the scientific output of the samples, and to minimize the cost and size of an SRF, as many analyses as possible should be conducted in labs outside of biocontainment, either on sterilized samples or after the samples have been determined to be safe for release.