NASA has presented two innovative strategies to retrieve Martian samples by the 2030s, aiming to address the cost and timeline concerns of the original Mars Sample Return program.
Two new potential strategies for returning crucial samples from Mars to Earth by the 2030s are now on the table, according to NASA . The proposals present alternatives to the original Mars Sample Return program. Designed by NASA and the European Space Agency, the initial plan was deemed unwieldy after an independent review board projected it could cost up to $11 billion.
The board’s assessment also pushed the expected return date of the samples from 2031 to 2040 — a delay that was “simply unacceptable,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson reiterated Tuesday. The agency will decide between the newly proposed strategies, intended to reduce complexity, cost and mission duration, by the second half of 2026, Nelson announced during a news conference on Tuesday. The NASA Perseverance rover has been gathering rocks and dust since it landed on Mars in February 2021. Scientists believe those samples — collected from Jezero Crater, the former site of an ancient lake and river delta — might be one of the only ways to determine whether life ever existed on the red planet. But returning the specimens to Earth, a feat that could answer one of humanity’s biggest questions about the potential for life beyond Earth, is a complex process. Both the original and new architecture for the program include multiple spacecraft that would be used to land on Mars and ferry the cache back to our planet. In April, NASA asked its various centers and industry partners to come up with new plans for getting the samples back to Earth in a more streamlined and cost-effective way. The agency’s Mars Sample Return Strategic Review team assessed 11 of the studies and made recommendations to NASA, which were then further refined by leadership. “We are exploring two new landing options,” said Dr. Nicky Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “One is to leverage technology that was previously used to land both (the) Perseverance and Curiosity (rovers) on Mars”
MARS SAMPLES SPACE EXPLORATION NASA SCIENCE MISSION DIRECTORATE PERSEVERANCE ROVER
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