Rationale and Preliminary Design for a Mars Sample Return Science Program

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYThe Mars Sample Return (MSR) Campaign represents one of the most ambitious scientific endeavors ever undertaken. Analyses of the martian samples would offer unique science benefits that cannot be attained through orbital or landed missions that rely only on remote sensing and in-situ measurements, respectively.Ensuring that all required scientific activities are properly designed, managed, and executed would require significant planning and coordination. As currently designed, the MSR Campaign comprises a number of scientific, technical, and programmatic bodies and relationships, captured in a series of existing and anticipated documents. Because there are so many scientific elements that would need to be executed to achieve MSR Campaign success, it is critical to ensure that the appropriate management, oversight, planning, and resources are made available to accomplish them. To date, however, no dedicated budget lines within NASA and ESA have been made available for these purposes, and no formal MSR Science Management Plan (SMP) has yet been established. It is thus evident that:A joint ESA/NASA MSR Science Program, along with the necessary funding and resources, will be required to accomplish the end-to-end scientific objectives of MSR.To aid in planning, the MSR Science Program requires an overarching SMP to fully describe how it could be implemented to meet the MSR scientific objectives and maximize the overall science return. A subset of the MSR Science Planning Group 2 (MSPG2) – termed the SMP Focus Group – was tasked to develop inputs for the MSR Campaign SMP. The scope covers the interface to the Mars 2020 mission, science elements in the MSR flight program, ground-based science infrastructure, MSR science opportunities, and the MSR sample and science data management. Some of the required bodies and activities already exist; the remainder require definition.In this report, a comprehensive MSR Science Program is proposed, comprising specific science bodies and/or activities that could be implemented to address the science functionalities throughout the MSR Campaign. The proposed structure was designed by taking into consideration previous management review processes, a set of guiding principles, and key lessons learned from previous robotic exploration and sample return missions. While we acknowledge that the proposal is non-unique, that is, other implementations could meet the overall needs of the MSR Campaign, we have striven to optimize efficiencies and eliminate unnecessary overlap wherever possible to reduce the potential cost and complexity of the MSR Science Program.Many elements of the proposed Science Program are interdependent, as the decision to trigger certain bodies or activities depend on reaching key milestones throughout the MSR Campaign. Although the timing of certain elements may be flexible depending on the anticipated date of samples arriving on Earth, it is crucial that others are implemented as soon as is feasible.As a first step, formalizing the Science Program’s management structure by the end of 2021 would ensure that impending time-sensitive trades are conducted, and the resulting decisions are made with adequate scientific input.

执行摘要
火星样本返回（Mars Sample Return, MSR）计划是人类迄今开展的最具雄心的科学探索项目之一。对火星样本的分析将带来独特的科学价值，这是仅依赖遥感的轨道任务，以及仅依赖原位探测的着陆任务分别无法实现的。
确保所有必要的科学活动得到妥善设计、管理与实施，需要开展大量的规划与协调工作。
就当前的设计方案而言，MSR计划涵盖了一系列科学、技术与项目管理相关的主体及协作关系，这些内容被收录于一系列现有及预期形成的文件之中。
由于要达成MSR计划的目标需要落地大量科学环节，因此至关重要的一点是，确保为这些环节配备恰当的管理、监督、规划资源与支持保障。
但截至目前，美国国家航空航天局（National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA）与欧洲空间局（European Space Agency, ESA）尚未为该计划设立专门的预算科目，且尚未正式制定火星样本返回科学管理计划（MSR Science Management Plan, SMP）。
由此可见：
需要建立欧空局与NASA联合的MSR科学计划，并配套必要的资金与资源，方能实现MSR计划的端到端科学目标。
为助力规划工作，MSR科学计划需要一份总体性的SMP，以全面阐述如何落地实施该计划，达成MSR的科学目标并最大化整体科学回报。
火星样本返回科学规划小组2（MSR Science Planning Group 2, MSPG2）下设的一个分支小组——即SMP焦点小组——被赋予了为MSR计划SMP制定编制依据的任务。
该小组的工作范围涵盖与火星2020任务的衔接环节、MSR飞行计划中的科学环节、地面科学基础设施、MSR科学机遇，以及MSR样本与科学数据管理。
部分所需的主体与活动已具备雏形，其余部分则有待明确界定。
本报告提出了一套完整的MSR科学计划，包含可落地实施的具体科学主体与/或活动，以覆盖MSR计划全流程的科学职能需求。
该提案的架构在设计过程中，参考了过往的管理评审流程、一系列指导原则，以及从以往机器人探测与样本返回任务中汲取的关键经验教训。
尽管我们承认本提案并非唯一可行方案，即存在其他可满足MSR计划整体需求的实施路径，但我们已尽可能优化效率、消除不必要的重复环节，以降低MSR科学计划的潜在成本与复杂度。
提案中的科学计划诸多环节存在相互依存关系，因为启动特定主体或活动的决策，取决于MSR计划全流程中关键里程碑的达成情况。
尽管部分环节的时间安排可根据样本预计抵达地球的日期进行调整，但其他环节需尽可能尽早落地实施。
作为第一步，在2021年底前完成科学计划管理架构的正式确立，将确保即将开展的时效性较强的权衡分析工作得以顺利推进，并确保最终决策具备充分的科学依据支撑。