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NASA says it needs better ideas on how to return samples from Mars (arstechnica.com)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

If you're meeting the cycler in its orbit, you're already on a free return trajectory back to Earth by definition. You need another burn if you want to stop at Mars and another burn after that to leave and get back on a trajectory to Earth. In any event, you need to bring all of that propellant one way or another through some combination of independent launches. I'm still not seeing what a rendezvous with the cycler craft is doing for an unmanned mission. Any delta-v you take from the cycler has to be put back via refueling or reboosting at some point or another.