Design of a martian ice sample return mission.

This is the summary of the proposal sent by Unversidad de Antioquia's Haba Sulue Team in response to AIAA's 2020-2021 Space Design Competition Request for Proposal (RFP). The competition asked for design concepts for an ice sample retrieval and return mission from Mars, which should bring back to earth individual ice core samples of at least 100 x 25 mm and a total of over 2.5 kg, using a fully robotic system by the end of 2030 and with a maximum budget of 1 billion USD (FY2020). The methodology was the one proposed by Larson and Wertz in the Space Mission Analysis and Design (SMAD), with the combination of an iterative design process centered in choosing existing reliable technologies, and an Analytic Hierarchical Process (AHP) for system selection, resulting in a single launch mission comprised by an Interplanetary Transfer Vehicle (ITV) carrying a rover with the Auto-Gopher II drill, and a modified Sky-Crane descent stage serving as landing platform for a solid propellant Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), all inside a Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) class aeroshell, landing at coordinates 68,35 °N and 233° E. The retrieved ice samples are sent back to Earth inside the Orbiting Sample (OS), via the ITV, ending in a direct ballistic reentry inside the Earth Entry Vehicle (EEV), with touchdown at White Sands Nevada. This resulted in a 954 million dollars FY2020 mission, that delivers 2.7 kg of samples to Earth, in February 2030. The selection process resulted in the novel design of a light Mars Rover, aimed for ice coring using Auto-Gopher II drill and the refurbishing of the Sky-Crane MSL Descent Stage as a new Mars Precision Lander (MPL).