Is NASA's New Plan for Collecting Mars Rocks a Game Changer for Space Exploration?

Perseverance rover captures a portrait of its recently completed sample depot on Mars, showcasing its tire tracks across the Martian landscape using the Mastcam-Z camera on January 31, 2023.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (NB360) — NASA is proposing a more affordable and faster method of retrieving rocks and soil from Mars, following the escalation of its initial plan to $11 billion.

Administrator Bill Nelson outlined a revised plan on Tuesday, just under two weeks before leaving his position as NASA’s chief when President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

Nelson mentioned he “called off” the original sample return plan months ago due to rising costs and the delay in retrieving anything from Mars before 2040.

Last year, NASA approached industry and other entities for improved options to ensure the samples collected in cigar-sized tubes by NASA’s Perseverance rover are brought back in the 2030s, well before astronauts travel to the red planet.

“We aim to return 30 titanium tubes as quickly as possible at the lowest cost,” Nelson stated.

The space agency is considering two options estimated to cost between $6 billion and $7 billion, including one featuring innovative designs from commercial partners. The number of spacecraft and launches would remain unchanged, but NASA stated the proposed options would streamline the mission.

A final decision will be made next year, after engineering studies provide details for each option. The more conventional alternative would use the same landing method that deployed NASA’s Perseverance and Curiosity rovers onto Mars — a rocket-guided platform known as a sky crane. The second option would involve a landing system developed by private companies; limited details were provided on this approach in the latest update.

Perseverance has gathered over two dozen samples since its 2021 landing, with more expected in NASA’s high-priority quest for evidence of ancient, microscopic Martian life. Scientists wish to examine the samples from the red planet’s long-dry river delta in Earth-based labs.

Compilation of Martian rock samples collected by NASA's Perseverance rover, showcasing samples from September 8, 2021, December 22, 2021, January 31, 2022, and November 24, 2021, highlighting the diverse geology of Mars.

NASA officials emphasized that both options would simplify the process by cleaning the sample tubes on Mars’s surface, rather than in the returning spacecraft, and switching from solar to nuclear power to withstand Martian dust storms.

Nelson said the decision on how best to retrieve the Mars samples will fall to the incoming administration, with funding needing to commence immediately to achieve this. Trump has nominated tech billionaire Jared Isaacman, who has personally funded two trips into orbit, as Nelson’s successor.

“Our goal was to provide them with the best possible options to move forward,” Nelson said.

___

The News Blend 360 Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. News Blend 360 writer Belinda Foster in Los Angeles contributed to this report.