Preliminary Thermal Challenges of the Capture, Containment and Return System (CCRS) Primary Containment Vessel

Planning for Mars Sample Return continues to evolve as science and engineering institutions propose solutions to return samples cached by NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover. Early designs include methods to seal samples inside primary and secondary containment vessels to address back planetary protection requirements as part of ESA’s Earth Return Orbiter’s (ERO) Capture, Containment and Return System (CCRS). As an ERO payload, CCRS would capture the Orbiting Sample (OS) containing the cached Mars’ samples from Mars orbit, contain the OS inside a sterilized primary vessel, insert the primary vessel into a secondary vessel, and return it to Earth. While the CCRS project has currently been paused, the thermal design required testing of optical coatings, heaters, and interface conductances at high temperatures in excess of 500⁰C to both assemble the primary containment vessel and sterilize critical interfaces. Parameter sensitivities using the thermal model provided inputs into such tests as well as significant exposure on the project risk list until bought down. Achievement of such high temperatures across multiple moving interfaces and even various projects within the planned MSR campaign, required challenging thermal solutions.