This new approach ensures that NASA will be able to return Mars samples with “significant cost savings” and time compared to the previous plan, guaranteedNASA administrator, Bill Nelson.
A announced on Tuesday that it is considering two options to carry out the complicated and expensive task of transporting Martian soil samples collected by the Perseverance robot to Earth, some involving partnerships with private companies.
The North American space agency intends to choose between one of the two options defined so far from the second half of 2026.
What are the options?
NASA administrator Bill Nelson detailed in a videoconference that one of the options would be based on the new commercial possibilities of taking the lander’s payload to the surface of Mars and would imply a cost that would vary between 5,800 and 7,100 million of dollars.
The other strategy of collecting around 30 samples that Perseverance took “will take advantage of previously carried out entry, descent and landing system projects, namely the aerial crane method, demonstrated with the Curiosity and Perseverance missions”, according to the space agency .
This option would imply a budget between 6,600 and 7,700 million dollars, revealed Nelson, who specified that to continue the analysis of both “architectures” it will be necessary for Congress to approve an appropriation of 300 million dollars for the 2025 fiscal year.
This new approach ensures that NASA will be able to return Mars samples with “significant cost savings” and time compared to the previous plan, added the outgoing NASA administrator, who estimates that based on either of these two alternatives, samples could reach Earth between 2035 and 2039.
One step away from “change the way we understand Mars”
“These samples have the potential to change the way we understand Mars, our universe and, ultimately, ourselves,” said Nelson.
Samples collected by the Perseverance rover, which took off in July 2020 and arrived at the Red Planet on February 18, 2021, will make it possible to decipher whether the neighboring planet has already hosted life.
For both possible options, a smaller version of the vehicle is contemplated that will fly with the samples from Mars to the European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft that will be orbiting the red planet and will be responsible for transporting the cargo to Earth.
The probe’s solar panels will be replaced by a radioisotope power system that can provide energy and heat during dust storms on Mars, the US agency highlighted on Tuesday.
Bill Nelson also revealed on Tuesday that so far he has not spoken about this program with the next head of NASA, millionaire Jared Isaacman, appointed by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the North American space agency.
For those still responsible, it is “responsible” to offer alternatives to the new administration.
