Amid a financial constraint, NASA is looking for less expensive suggestions for a Mars sample return mission

In the midst of a financial crisis, NASA is looking for a simpler, less expensive way to accomplish one of its top research priorities: recovering priceless soil samples gathered on Mars and returning them to Earth, US space agency officials said on Monday.

Officials from NASA have announced that a formal call for bids, aimed at reviving a program beset by budgetary limits, technical difficulties, and skyrocketing prices, would be sent on Tuesday to a number of NASA centers and labs as well as firms in the space sector.

During a conference call with reporters, agency representatives said they anticipate receiving alternate proposals for assessment in the autumn or early winter.

In order to cut down on development time, risks, and expenses, Associate NASA Administrator Nicky Fox said that the redesign would prioritize “innovation and proven technology” as opposed to radical new technical advancements.

In the end, it was uncertain how NASA would resolve the seeming contradiction of using comparable technology for spaceflight systems to achieve a first, particularly the launch of a rocket from the surface of a different planet.

The Mars sample return approach is being redesigned in response to the conclusion of an independent study conducted in September by NASA, which found that the program was hampered by “unrealistic budget and schedule expectations from the beginning.”

The mission was deemed to be “not arranged to be led effectively” and “organized under an unwieldy structure” by the evaluation panel. Congress’s severe budget cutbacks for space projects this year have cast even more doubt on the endeavor, necessitating hundreds of layoffs at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), close to Los Angeles, where teams are spearheading the Mars trip.

Since 2021, the robotic rover Perseverance, developed by JPL, has been gathering mineral samples from the bottom of the Jezero Crater, an old Martian lake bed. The materials are sealed within tubes that will be used in a lab examination later on to look for potential preserved bacteria.

In order to gather the samples and put them into Martian orbit for a rendezvous with a third spacecraft that would transport them back to Earth, the mission’s next phase will include working with the European Space Agency.

The retrieval and orbital vehicle launches were scheduled for 2027–2028. The sample return goal was set for the early 2030s, and the total estimated expenditures ranged from $5 billion to $7 billion.

However, the independent analysis discovered that, with current designs, the true price of returning Mars samples to Earth would reach up to $11 billion, making it impossible to deliver the specimens before 2040.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said, “The bottom line is a $11 billion budget is too expensive, and a 2040 return date is too far away.”

According to Nelson, maintaining the current budget levels would also have a negative impact on other important NASA research goals, such the near-Earth object surveyor, two forthcoming missions to Venus, and a proposed rotorcraft investigation of Saturn’s frozen moon Titan.

NASA representatives did not rule out the prospect of Perseverance abandoning any of the more than thirty samples it is anticipated to gather. A modest backup cache was set up at a gathering spot on the planet’s surface, but the majority of the samples are being stored within the rover itself.

Nelson expressed optimism that a solution will be found by the most brilliant brains at NASA, JPL, and its aerospace sector partners.

He said, “These are people who can figure out rather difficult things.”