NASA faces challenges in its Mars Sample Return mission, aiming to bring the first Martian samples to Earth. The agency has announced two potential paths forward, focusing on cost and schedule efficiency.
NASA has big goals for Mars . It wants to collect the first-ever samples from the Martian surface and deliver them back to Earth in an ambitious mission called Mars Sample Return . But even in its development phase, the mission has run into problems. With a ballooning budget and unrealistic time frame, NASA decided last year that it needed a new approach to the mission, and now it has announced an update. It’s working on two ideas, with the best to be chosen in 2026.
Pursuing two potential paths forward will ensure that NASA is able to bring these samples back from Mars with significant cost and schedule saving compared to the previous plan,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “These samples have the potential to change the way we understand Mars, our universe, and – ultimately – ourselves. I’d like to thank the team at NASA and the strategic review team, led by Dr. Maria Zuber, for their work. Getting a sample back from Mars is exceedingly tricky. Although the Perseverance rover has already collected and sealed a bunch of samples and left them at a depot on the Martian surface, getting them back to Earth will require a difficult series of maneuvers, including some things that have never been attempted before, such as launching a rocket from the surface of another planet. That means that the lander for the mission will have to carry a significant amount of mass, and landing a large mass on Mars is tricky because the thin atmosphere doesn’t provide much resistance for parachutes. One approach NASA is considering for the landing portion of the mission is to use a system similar to that used for landing the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers, called a sky crane. The other option is to use a commercially developed lander, looking to companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin to develop their own idea
MARS NASA SAMPLE RETURN MISSION SPACE EXPLORATION
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