Micrometeoroid and Orbital Debris Risk Assessment and Mitigation for Mars Sample Return

The Mars Sample Return’s Capture, Containment, and Return System (CCRS) would be critical for the safe transport of Martian material back to Earth. Ensuring the protection of the samples from micrometeoroid and orbital debris impacts is essential to mission success. This paper presents a risk assessment and mitigation strategy for the preliminary CCRS micrometeoroid protection system design prior to the re-architecture efforts initiated after December 2023. The analysis included developing a multishock shielding system through iterative design, hypervelocity impact testing, and risk assessment using high-fidelity environment models, ballistic limit equations, and hydrocode simulations. Results showed that the preliminary design met mission requirements, achieving critical damage probabilities below 2E−6 (prerelease) and 3E−6 (postrelease). Key findings emphasize the importance of material selection, structural configuration, and risk mitigation strategies, providing insights for future long-duration planetary missions facing similar micrometeoroid environments.