NASA is looking for innovative methods that could help retrieve samples collected by the Perseverance rover on Mars in the future.
The rover, which landed on Mars in February 2021, collected specimens from the Jezero crater, where an ancient lake and river delta once existed on the red planet. Scientists think the samples could help them better understand whether life ever existed on Mars.
The original design for the Mars Sample Return program, a partnership between NASA and the European Space Agency, was complex. The architecture involved multiple missions launching from Earth to Mars to collect the samples, and then conducting the first rocket launch from the surface of another planet to return the samples to Earth.
But there are concerns the program would be too unwieldy due to its complexity, cost and a delayed return date, which was originally expected to happen in 2031 but was pushed back after reviews by an independent review board. Budget cuts that have hit NASA have also jeopardized the program.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Nicky Fox, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, shared the federal agency's response to the independent review board on Monday.
Reviews of the program have recommended that the return of the Mars sample should cost no more than $5 billion to $7 billion, Nelson said. But NASA is being forced to deal with the constraints of reduced spending due to budget cuts for the 2024 and 2025 budget years, leaving the agency to take a $2.5 billion hit, he said.
"Mars Sample Return will be one of the most complex missions NASA has ever conducted. The bottom line is that an $11 billion budget is too expensive and a 2040 return date is too far away," Nelson said. "Safely landing and collecting the samples, launching a rocket containing the samples from another planet - which has never been done before - and safely transporting the samples more than 53 million kilometers back to Earth is no small feat. task. We need to look outside the box to find a path forward that is both affordable and returns samples in a reasonable time frame."
The story continues
Nelson said it is unacceptable to wait until 2040 to return the samples to Earth because the 2040s is "the decade when we are going to land astronauts on Mars," he reiterated during a news conference on Monday.
Reduced budget, rising costs impact Mars Sample Return
An $11 billion price tag for the program would lead NASA to cannibalize other science programs and missions, Nelson said.
These missions include the NEO, or Near-Earth Object, Surveyor, to discover asteroids that could pose a risk to Earth; Dragonfly, which will investigate the potential habitability of Saturn's moon Titan; and missions such as DAVINCI and VERITAS to discover the secrets of Venus. (The names of the Venus missions are an abbreviation of Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble Gases, Chemistry and Imaging Plus and Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography and Spectroscopy.)
While Nelson is hopeful that the FY 2026 budget won't be as tight, freeing up more science funding for NASA, this doesn't solve the immediate problem of how to move forward with Mars Sample Return.
That is why the space organization is opening a call for help.
Innovation and trusted technology
Agency officials will soon announce requests to NASA centers and industry to develop a new plan that combines innovation with lessons learned from proven technology, Fox said. NASA is targeting the 2030s for a sample return mission with less complexity, cost and risk, he said.
It's a quick turnaround for proposals, and the agency expects to have answers about the best way to return samples from Mars by the fall, Nelson said.
The basic requirement of the proposals is to return the 30 scientifically synthesized samples Perseverance took from a diverse range of locations, Fox said.
"Mars is extremely important to us," Fox said. "It's one of the few locations where life could have happened. That said, we understand that in order to do things faster, we may need to reduce the scope of sample numbers."
The application for a new architecture for Mars Sample Return includes a set of desired specimens to return to Earth, Fox said.
"We operate under the premise that it is an important national objective that we return the samples," Nelson said.
He reinforced the idea that NASA did not want to end the program because it was deemed too critical, especially as the agency wants to land astronauts on the red planet in the future.
Meanwhile, the current decisions do not affect the science plan for Perseverance's journey on Mars, and the rover will continue to collect samples as it explores the crater rim, Fox said.
Looking to the future
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages the Perseverance rover mission and other Mars exploration efforts.
Current reentry program efforts were underway at JPL when layoffs occurred in February to meet budget cuts requirements. The new architecture ultimately developed for the sample return mission will determine the scope of JPL's management oversight, Nelson said.
The European Space Agency has also played a major role in the program's development, and Fox confirmed that the agency is still involved in discussions about the program's future.
For fiscal year 2025, Fox said she is recommending a $200 million budget request while NASA assesses alternative architectures that would also allow other planetary science to continue at JPL and other NASA centers.
"To orchestrate a mission at this level of complexity, we draw on decades of lessons about running a major mission, including integrating the input we get from conducting independent assessments," Fox said. "Our next steps will position us to advance this transformational mission and deliver revolutionary science from Mars - which will yield crucial new insights into the origins and evolution of Mars, our solar system and life on Earth."
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