NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return

NASA-ESA MSR Patch
Mars Sample Return Program[1]
(Artwork; July 27, 2022)
Mars Sample Return[2](Video; November 17, 2022)

The NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return is a proposed Flagship-class Mars sample return (MSR) mission[3] to collect Martian rock and soil samples in 43 small, cylindrical, pencil-sized, titanium tubes and return them to Earth around 2033.[4]

The NASA–ESA plan, approved in September 2022, is to return samples using three missions: a sample collection mission (Perseverance), a sample retrieval mission (Sample Retrieval Lander + Mars Ascent Vehicle + Sample Transfer Arm + 2 Ingenuity-class helicopters), and a return mission (Earth Return Orbiter).[5][6][7] The mission hopes to resolve the question of whether Mars once harbored life.

Although the proposal is still in the design stage, the Perseverance rover is currently gathering samples on Mars and the components of the sample retrieval lander are in testing phase on earth.[8][9]

After a project review critical of its cost and complexity,[10][11] NASA announced that the project was "paused" as of 13 November 2023.[12] On 22 November 2023, NASA was reported to have cut back on the Mars sample-return mission due to a possible shortage of funds.[13] In April 2024, in a NASA update via teleconference, the NASA Administrator emphasized continuing the commitment to retrieving the samples. However, under the then-current mission profile, the cost of $11 billion was infeasible, therefore NASA would turn to industry and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to form a new, more fiscally feasible mission profile to retrieve the samples, with responses expected by fall 2024.[14][15][16]

  1. ^ Chang, Kenneth (July 27, 2022). "NASA Will Send More Helicopters to Mars – Instead of sending another rover to help retrieve rock and dirt samples from the red planet and bring them to Earth, the agency will provide the helicopters as a backup option". The New York Times. Retrieved July 28, 2022.
  2. ^ Mars Sample Return: Bringing Mars Rock Samples Back to Earth, November 17, 2022, retrieved February 6, 2023
  3. ^ Berger, Eric (September 21, 2023). "Independent reviewers find NASA Mars Sample Return plans are seriously flawed". Ars Technica. Retrieved September 23, 2023.
  4. ^ Chang, Kenneth (July 28, 2020). "Bringing Mars Rocks to Earth: Our Greatest Interplanetary Circus Act – NASA and the European Space Agency plan to toss rocks from one spacecraft to another before the samples finally land on Earth in 2031". The New York Times. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
  5. ^ Foust, Jeff (March 27, 2022). "NASA to delay Mars Sample Return, switch to dual-lander approach". SpaceNews. Retrieved March 28, 2022.
  6. ^ "Future Planetary Exploration: New Mars Sample Return Plan". December 8, 2009.
  7. ^ "Mars sample return". www.esa.int. Retrieved January 3, 2022.
  8. ^ mars.nasa.gov. "Mars Sample Return Campaign". mars.nasa.gov. Retrieved June 15, 2022.
  9. ^ Barnett, Jessica (July 31, 2023). Ridgeway, Beth (ed.). "NASA Mars Ascent Vehicle Continues Progress Toward Mars Sample Return". NASA. Archived from the original on October 4, 2024. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  10. ^ Berger, Eric (June 23, 2023). "NASA's Mars Sample Return has a new price tag—and it's colossal". Ars Technica. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
  11. ^ Berger, Eric (July 13, 2023). "The Senate just lobbed a tactical nuke at NASA's Mars Sample Return program". Ars Technica. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
  12. ^ Smith, Marcia (November 13, 2023). "NASA "Pauses" Mars Sample Return Program While Assessing Options". spacepolicyonline.com. Retrieved November 18, 2023.
  13. ^ Berg, Matt (November 22, 2023). "Lawmakers 'mystified' after NASA scales back Mars collection program - The space agency's cut could "cost hundreds of jobs and a decade of lost science," the bipartisan group says". Politico. Archived from the original on November 22, 2023. Retrieved November 25, 2023.
  14. ^ "NASA Invites Media to Mars Sample Return Update - NASA". Retrieved April 15, 2024.
  15. ^ "NASA says it's revising the Mars Sample Return mission due to cost, long wait time". ABC News. Retrieved April 15, 2024.
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference NYT-20240415 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).