An illustration of the Mars Sample Return mission. (Image Credit: NASA/ESA/JPL-Caltech)
According to NASA, the existing Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission plans to return the Mars rock samples before 2040 need to be reconsidered. The space agency says the $11 billion required for it to succeed isn't sustainable. So NASA will explore cheaper, more creative alternatives and wants to form a new plan later this year.
"The bottom line is that $11bn is too expensive, and not returning samples until 2040 is unacceptably too long," NASA administrator Bill Nelson said in a teleconference. He also said this Mars project won't interfere with other agency science missions. So the goal here is to come up with new ideas --- either from NASA or the industry.
Currently, NASA's Perseverance rover is collecting and cataloging the Mars rock samples that will eventually be sent to Earth. A follow-up mission was set to launch this decade to send a rocket to Mars' surface. Perseverance then places the samples in this rocket before it launches into the sky and meets up with a European spacecraft that collects them and travels to Earth.
Estimates suggested that approximately 300g of Martian rocks would arrive in Utah by 2033. However, a September 2023 review discovered drawbacks within the mission design's implementation. There's some uncertainty behind the schedule management. It also predicted the cost could rise between $8 billion to $11 billion.
NASA agrees with those findings. Even if the architecture is simplified, a new plan is needed to get those rock samples to Earth before 2040. "We are looking at out-of-the-box possibilities that could return the samples earlier and at a lower cost," Nicky Fox, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said during the teleconference."This is definitely a very ambitious goal, and we're going to need to go after some very innovative new possibilities for design and certainly leave no stone unturned."
She believes a simple but smaller rocket could be a solution. The ESA is still expected to be part of this mission with its Earth Return Orbiter (ERO). However, the ERO's launch date has been pushed back, possibly until 2030.
On April 16th, NASA called for new MSR mission plans --- expected to close on May 17th. During the fall, the space agency hopes to have all the information ready to decide on a plan and select a partner. And NASA says it wants to use technology that already works.
NASA is still committed to MSR. The ESA expects to review NASA's response plan. Its goal is to ensure the best path forward to achieve the mission's objectives and lay the groundwork for future human missions to Mars. However, the MSR's costs need to reach between $5 billion and $7 billion.
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