TM/TC Front-Ends selected for Mars Sample Return Mission

The contract for the supply of the TM/TC Front-Ends for use in the frame of Mars Sample Return (MSR) Earth Return Orbiter (ERO) has been placed by Thales Alenia Space, Turin with Celestia Antwerp. Although the contract has been placed with Celestia Antwerp, the C-STS TM/TC FEs are the offered and adopted solution.

In total 2 systems will be delivered (for AVM and PFM), however as there are 2 On-board computers that will be operated in parallel, each system consists of 2 x Interface Processing Units and 2 x Work Stations.

This link provides an interesting insight into how challenging this mission is, with the US Perseverance Rover being the 1st part of the ‘Masterplan’: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Exploration/Mars_sample_return