NASA’s highly ambitious Mars Sample Return mission remains at a crossroads as the agency struggles to simplify the project plagued by escalating costs and delays. It is supposed to bring Martian rocks and soil back to Earth, with the potential of offering groundbreaking insight into the history of Mars and possibly evidence of past life. However the project has struggled to fit within the expectations for the budget and timeline of a several-billion-dollar mission.
In a recent update, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said that the agency would be studying two separate approaches to ensure the mission’s success. One plan would utilize more traditional NASA methods, including the “sky crane” technique that landed rovers on Mars, while the second option would leverage the larger rockets currently under development by commercial space companies like SpaceX.
NASA’s pursuit of two paths underlines the agency’s intention to simplify the mission and cut costs. The traditional approach would use established spacecraft technology and landing systems, while the commercial option remains a more flexible, possibly cheaper approach that could involve private companies like Lockheed Martin or SpaceX.
But despite those refinement efforts, experts and advocacy groups question the future of the mission. “Yet more studies and no firm decision,” said Casey Dreier, head of space policy at the Planetary Society. “NASA needs to commit or not commit for the mission to return samples anytime soon.”
The Mars Sample Return mission has long been a priority for planetary scientists. The Perseverance rover has collected 28 tubes, which are expected to yield answers to questions about the planet’s past; it is already collecting Martian rock samples. However, budget overruns and complex logistical challenges have inflated the cost of the mission. Recent estimates put the cost anywhere between $8 billion and $11 billion, far beyond its initial budget. Because of this, NASA has stopped working to rethink a less complicated and cheaper way to do it.
The future of the Mars Sample Return remains vague, but to scientists, it could yield very critical information about the Red Planet’s past. On Earth, scientists would be able to apply new, advanced technologies that are impractical to take to Mars to study Martian samples, which may reveal secrets of the planet’s history, climate, and past or present capability to support life. The simplified mission may also see samples return to Earth between 2035 and 2039, albeit with a slashed cost of roughly $6.6 billion to $7.7 billion compared to its estimated price tag of $11 billion.
