An independent review of NASA’s ambitious mission to bring back about half a kilogram of rock and soil from the surface of Mars has found the plan to be unfeasible in its current form.
NASA planned to launch key elements of the Mars Sample Return Mission (MSR) as early as 2028, and the total budget for the program was $4.4 billion. The independent review committee’s report states: Opened to the public on Thursdayconcludes that both this schedule and budget are highly unrealistic.
The earliest this mission could be launched from Earth is 2030, an opportunity that would only be possible with a total budget of $8 billion to $11 billion.
“MSR is a deep space exploration priority for NASA,” the report states. “However, MSR was founded from the beginning with unrealistic budget and schedule expectations. MSR was also organized under an unwieldy structure. As a result, it currently has There is no specific or appropriately margined schedule, cost or technical baseline that will likely be achieved with the available funds.”
The results of the independent study, led by Orlando Figueroa, former deputy director for science and technology at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, echo a report released by Ars Tecnica about three months ago, pointing to costs and This raises serious questions about the schedule. A concern expressed by some scientists, including former NASA Science Director Thomas Zurbuchen, was that the cost of returning Mars samples would balloon and eat into funding from other science missions.
Following the Ars Technica report, some policymakers in the US Senate also expressed serious concerns about the direction of the sample return program.
mission
Under NASA’s existing plan, the agency would develop a large Sample Retriever lander. After the vehicle landed on Mars, the Perseverance rover collected and stored samples of Martian dust in 38 titanium tubes (each about the size of a large hot dog). will be carried to the lander.
Once these sample tubes are delivered to the lander, they will be loaded onto a rocket called the Mars Ascent Vehicle. The rocket, developed by Lockheed Martin, will be housed inside the lander. After the rocket lifts off from Mars, it will eject an “orbiting sample container” into Mars’ orbit, where it will be retrieved by an “Earth Return Orbiter” built by the European Space Agency. The vehicle will carry the samples into Earth orbit, where they will be released onto a small spacecraft that will land on Earth about five years after the mission begins.
As a backup plan in case Perseverance is unable to deliver samples to the lander, NASA will Originality and ingenuity Vehicle for collecting samples. An independent reviewer said the helicopter was likely acceptable for just one of his.
Why is it important to bring back samples from Mars?
The report explains the scientific importance of bringing back samples from Mars, both for its geological purposes and for life on the red planet, which in the distant past was more like Earth, with a thick atmosphere and rivers and lakes. We are reconfirming it from both perspectives: evaluating whether it existed or not. .
“MSR represents an important next step in the strategic program of Mars exploration over the past 40 years,” the report said. “U.S. and European spacecraft and a U.S. spacecraft have discovered a promising site where life may once have existed.”
Sample return missions have been a priority of the scientific community for decades, including being the most requested mission in the last two editions of the National Academies Planetary Science Decadal Report, which informs space policy decisions by Congress and the President. It has become.
Reviewers also noted the importance of NASA and the European Space Agency as world leaders in space exploration as soft power features. China has previously announced plans to launch a sample return mission to Mars, Tianwen-3, as early as 2028 or 2030, a clear challenge to U.S. scientific leadership in Mars exploration.
many problems to solve
The report says NASA needs to work more closely with the planetary science community to explain the mission’s priorities and its place as the culmination of a decades-long Mars exploration strategy. In addition, the reviewer noted that canceling the Mars sample return do not have Free up billions of dollars for other planetary science missions.
“A particularly legitimate concern from the community is the impact MSR will have on other planetary science sectors,” the report states. “NASA must address this concern while clarifying and dispelling the notion that canceling the MSR will necessarily mean an increase in the budget for everyone else in the Planetary Science Division and even the Mars Exploration Program.” The cancellation could also cast doubt on the feasibility of other ambitious sample return efforts envisioned by NASA in the planetary science community. ”
The report also says the agency will send the Perseverance rover out of Jezero Crater “as soon as possible,” as this may be the scientific community’s only short-term effort to study samples from Mars. It also states that they should be instructed to move. The goal of such operations is to collect “the most valuable samples near the crater rim and beyond” to maximize the chances of finding samples that may contain evidence of life. I’ll probably get it.
In all, the report makes more than 20 findings and recommendations, making it clear to NASA and the mission’s lead field center, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, that current plans for the Mars sample return mission are broken. It is shown in As a result, agencies must significantly revise their plans with the goal of reducing costs, establishing reasonable schedules, and maximizing scientific potential.
NASA responded In response to the release of the report, the team will issue its own review and make recommendations by March 2024 on the future direction of Mars sample return within a balanced overall science program. said.