Late last night, NASA held a press conference to review plans to return samples from Mars to Earth. To this end, the $3 billion Mars Sample Return (MSR) program was launched about 15 years ago. The steps to implement it turned out to be greatly underestimated and today they require significant revision. Therefore, the program is paused until mid-2026, and the mission is postponed to 2031 and later.
This is how everything seemed at the beginning of the journey, but it turned out to be too expensive. Image source: NASA
The overwhelming complexity of implementing the MSR program became clear just three years after its launch. The price of the issue increased from $3 billion to $8–11 billion. In April 2024, the agency admitted that it was impossible to implement the program in the initially proposed version. A competition for the best commercial proposal began, which by the fall had identified half a dozen leaders. Among the best proposals, NASA selected two, as the head of the agency, Bill Nelson, announced yesterday.
The first option would modernize the current MSR program with amendments that would make it simpler and cheaper ($6.6 billion to $7.7 billion). The second option is commercial, the details of which were not disclosed to the public, citing the protection of developments by patents (worth from $5.8 to $7.1 billion). The choice between them will be made only in 18 months – in mid-2026. NASA promises not to rush things, especially since China appears to have already won this race. At least at the level of the stated and planned implementation rates.
China originally planned to launch a mission to return samples from Mars to Earth in 2031. According to the latest information, the mission will start earlier – in 2028. This gives the chance of returning Martian samples to Earth for the first time in 2031 or so, while NASA may delay the return of samples until 2040.
«Will people say it’s a race? – Nelson asks rhetorically. – Well, of course, people will say so. But these are two completely different missions.”
The head of NASA explained that China is planning a “grab and go” mission, which will provide insight only into the samples collected at the site of the robot’s descent. The NASA mission aims to give the scientific community a “comprehensive understanding” of the geology of Mars, hoping to return to Earth for study about 30 surface, air and rock core samples collected by the Perseverance rover over a series of science campaigns.
As for possible options for returning samples from Mars, NASA spoke only about the mission that became the successor to the basic MSR program. The lander with a rocket for lifting samples into orbit will be lowered to the surface of Mars by the so-called “air crane”. This is a platform with jet engines and straps to which the station will be attached. Two previous rovers, including Perseverance, landed on Mars in the same way. However, for an MSR mission, the platform would need to be 20% more powerful. The agency reduced the risk to a minimum by using a proven solution.
After descent, Perseverance itself will approach the station, which, using a robotic arm, made at one time as a reserve for the rover, will transfer the test tubes from Perseverance to a container on the rocket. Previously, it was proposed to entrust this operation to a specially created rover, then to helicopters. The new plan will not have this intermediate component, which will simplify and reduce the cost of the mission. On the other hand, Perseverance may fail before the station arrives, and then everything will be in vain, just as the spare tubes with samples left by the rover on the surface of the planet in improvised storage facilities will remain abandoned.
Once the container is packed, the rocket carrying the samples will rise into Mars orbit, where it will rendezvous with the orbiter and return module designed and launched by the European Space Agency. The landing station, by the way, will lose its solar panels. It will be powered by an on-board radioisotope source, which will help it operate even during the dust storm season on Mars and keep the solid-fuel engines of the return rocket warm – just as they like, Nelson joked.
The plans presented above lead to the fact that the ESA orbiter can launch to Mars no earlier than 2030, and the descent vehicle with a return rocket no earlier than 2031. NASA’s mission is much more ambitious than China’s plans. This allows the agency to save face by keeping its mission outside of this particular space race.