An international effort to launch a robotic mission to fetch and return a Martian sample back to Earth within the next decade is gaining steam.

Members of the International Mars Architecture for Return Samples (IMARS) convened in Washington, DC, US, in late November to lay the foundations for an international collaboration for a Martian soil sample return mission.

A recent report by the US National Research Council concluded that such a mission is of the highest scientific priority and crucial for answering questions about the existence of past or present life on the Red Planet.

Others have argued that a sample return mission is a necessary precursor to any future crewed mission, since it would otherwise be difficult to rule out the existence of Martian life forms that could be dangerous to humans.

International cooperation in the project is important because it is likely to carry a global-size price tag. NASA previously backed away from its own plans for a sample return mission due to budget overruns in the space shuttle programme.

"It's not an inexpensive proposition, and the ability to share the technical challenges and the costs across nations is very important for the success of this," says meeting attendee Lisa May, NASA's lead programme executive for Mars sample return missions.

Multiple spacecraft

The three-day IMARS meeting provided an opportunity for scientists and engineers from different nations and agencies to communicate and settle on a common set of goals and logistic requirements for the mission.

"There will be science objectives that the scientists want and engineering solutions that the engineers tell them they can have, and the agencies and nations participating will converge on what they can afford," May told New Scientist.

The participants generally agreed that the mission will involve multiple spacecraft, with each one dedicated to a specific task. For example, one probe could explore the surface and collect samples, while another would launch the samples into orbit above Mars, where a third could retrieve them before returning to Earth.

"We haven't settled down on how many [spacecraft] or who's building what or what's going to be on each launch vehicle yet, but we're looking at the end of the next decade," May says.

IMARS includes representatives from more than half a dozen nations and agencies, including NASA, the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and other space-faring nations are welcome to join. IMARS is a committee of the International Mars Exploration Working Group, which was established in 1993 to coordinate Mars exploration missions.

IMARS participants will perform a series of mission design studies before reconvening in March 2008.

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