Request Mars Polar Ice Sample Return

[Graham2001]

Beyond Apollo is a blog that deals with various proposed space exploration plans in the Post Apollo period.

Over the last few days it has been covering various Mars Sample return schemes. Most recently it covered a proposal to use a modified Viking spacecraft to return a sample of Martian ice from the Martian South Polar cap to Earth.

The proposed launch vehicle would be a Shuttle/Centaur and the returning sample would be collected by another shuttle mission.

I thought this might make for an interesting and possibly even challenging series of missions for Orbiter.

For the details see:

Beyond Apollo: Mars Polar Ice Sample Return (1976)

 

[Artlav]

That sure is an interesting mission.
Unmanned docking in Mars orbit?

The Dv budget seems strangely too large - Mars is not the Moon after all, and this thing is supposed to enter Mars orbit, leave Mars orbit, enter Earth orbit, all with a mass ratio of 1:4, and carrying a double martian SSTO with 2 tons of payload.

 

[Graham2001]

That sure is an interesting mission.
Unmanned docking in Mars orbit?

It seems to have been NASA's preferred scheme during the 1970's, I think the idea was to minimize the weight/complexity of the lander, that is not to say a 'direct launch' style approach did not have it's proponents.