BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — NASA’s Perseverance rover has collected two dozen rock and dust samples from the red planet that may one day answer the question, “Was there ever life on Mars?”
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But, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson determined that the agency’s previously proposed Mars Sample Return Mission would take too long and cost too much.
During a teleconference update, Nelson said, “It was thought that it could be as much as $11 billion. And you would not even get the samples back ‘til 2040. Well, that was just simply unacceptable.”
This afternoon, NASA announced two new possible approaches to bringing at least some of the samples home to Earth.
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The first option relies on previously flown entry, descent, and landing system designs, the sky-crane method, used with the Curiosity and Perseverance missions.
A European service vehicle would help return the cigar-sized samples. The second option uses new commercial capabilities to deliver the lander payload to the surface of Mars.
The latter option could involve returning the samples as soon as 2035, which would cost between 5.8 and 7.1 billion dollars.
Dr. Ken Kremer with Space Up Close added, “But why is it the Holy Grail? Because we might find life on mars or evidence of past life on mars. We know from Perseverance and Curiosity that there were organic molecules on Mars. I’m an organic chemist. We want to find this precisely if we’re looking for life. All the ingredients.”
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Dr. Nick Fox, the director of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, told reporters, “We explore Mars as part of our ongoing efforts to safely send humans to explore farther and farther into the solar system while also kind of getting to the bottom of whether Mars once supported ancient life and shed life on the early solar system.”
Nelson said any plan will need funding, beginning with 300 million dollars this fiscal year.
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