Planning for Mars Returned Sample Science: Final Report of the MSR End-to-End International Science Analysis Group (E2E-iSAG)

Returning samples from Mars to Earth for scientific analysis has been, and continues to be, among the highest-priority objectives of planetary science. Partly for this reason, the 2011 Planetary Science Decadal Survey placed high priority on a proposed 2018 rover mission that would conduct careful in situ science and use that scientific information to select and cache samples that could be returned to Earth by a potential future mission. To ensure that the potential contributions of the 2018 rover to the proposed Mars Sample Return (MSR) Campaign are properly planned, this study was undertaken to consider the science of the MSR Campaign concept from end to end. This white paper is the principal output of the MSR End-to-End International Science Analysis Group (E2E-iSAG): a group chartered by the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG).