NASA’s Response to the Mars Sample Return Problem: Create Two Plans

NASA’s Perseverance rover has been hard at work on Mars, collecting rocks and depositing them on the Red Planet. But on Earth, the space agency has struggled to implement its plans to recover Martian samples. After months of deliberations, NASA has decided to pursue a two-pronged approach to its Mars Sample Return program, one that supports private companies.

At a press conference on Tuesday, NASA announced a new approach to its Martian mission. The space agency will follow two different methods of removing samples from another planet to Earth. “Following the two-pronged approach will ensure that NASA can return these samples from Mars with significant cost and time savings compared to the previous plan,” said Bill Nelson, NASA administrator. words.

In April 2024, NASA asked private companies to come up with alternatives picking up Martian rock and dust from the Red Planet and dropping it on Earth. The space agency asked for proposals for low-cost infrastructure that would reduce costs and bring samples to Earth earlier. After five months, the agency received 11 studies from both NASA and industry players, and a team was formed to evaluate the best way to return the samples.

In the meantime, NASA will continue with “two different ways to find a payload on Mars,” the space agency wrote. The first method will include test methods to reach Mars using a sky crane similar to the one used by NASA astronauts, while the other method will choose a new method developed by a commercial partner.

The two routes will include a small version of the Mars Ascent Vehicle, a light rocket designed to launch tubes containing samples from Mars to Earth. The two missions will also rely on the European Space Agency’s Earth Return Orbiter, which was designed to image a spacecraft in orbit around Mars. The sample container contains 30 tubes.

“NASA astronauts are enduring the harsh environment of Mars to collect science samples,” Nicky Fox, assistant director of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said in a statement. “We want to bring them back as quickly as possible so that they can learn with them in the best possible environment.”

NASA has been struggling with its own Mission to return to Mars, which has recently come under scrutiny for cost overruns and system delays. In September 2023, a An independent review board (IRB) issued a report on the job, calling it “a very difficult and difficult campaign,” with “an impossible budget and expectations from the beginning.” The project is based on a budget of $ 7 billion to return the samples in the 2030s. Later it was revealed, however, that the Mars Sample Return requires an investment of 11 billion dollars, and it is estimated to return the samples by 2040. Considering this report, NASA started. considering the structure of his complex work.

Despite its challenges, Mars Sample Return is an unprecedented opportunity to study samples from a nearby planet. “Mars Sample Return will allow scientists to understand the history of the planet’s soil and climate change on a barren planet where life may have existed in the past and shed light on the early planets of the solar system before life began here on Earth,” said Fox. “This will also prepare us to send the first human explorers to Mars safely.”