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NASA is looking to simplify plans to return a cache of science samples collected by the ongoing Mars Perseverance rover mission. The original architecture, conceptualized here, could cost up to $11 billion and return the samples in 2040.
The departing leadership of NASA outlined a simpler, less expensive plan to return science samples from Mars, hoping the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump and the new U.S. Congress will champion the plan to reality.
After decades of groundwork, a carefully curated collection of Martian rocks and regolith samples awaits return to Earth for analysis. Scientists expect to learn more about the origin and evolution of Mars—and potentially if the planet most like Earth in the Solar System supported life.
- Solar-powered platform scrapped
- Smaller Mars launch vehicle planned
- European return orbiter retained
The Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign began in 2021 with the arrival of NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover to collect and cache samples from Jezero Crater, site of an ancient lake bed and river channels. The sediment may have preserved evidence of past microbial life.
Independent and NASA reviews, however, have determined that the cost to retrieve, launch and fly the bounty back to Earth would reach as much as $11 billion—more than twice original estimates—and would take years longer to complete.
Last year, NASA turned to private industry and its field centers for alternative ideas to simplify the mission, cut costs and return the samples sooner. The effort proved fruitful, and on Jan. 7—less than two weeks before NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and the rest of the Biden administration leave office—the agency outlined a path forward.
The revamped program includes:
- An Earth Return Orbiter (ERO) provided by the European Space Agency to capture the orbiting sample container after it has been launched into Mars orbit from the planet’s surface. The ERO, which was part of the original architecture, would then fly the canister back to Earth. The orbiter would launch in 2030.
- A simplified collection system to transfer and pack 30 sample tubes from the Perseverance rover to the sample container. The system simplifies planetary protection procedures for spacecraft return to Earth.
- A scaled-down solid-propellant Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) to launch the sample container into Mars orbit.
- A nuclear-powered—rather than solar-powered—landing platform. Using a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) would enable sample loading and other surface operations to continue during the Martian dust storm season, which hampers solar battery charging. An RTG, which provides power from the natural decay of radioactive plutonium, also would alleviate concerns about keeping the MAV’s solid propellant at the proper temperature for future operations.
To land the hardware on Mars, NASA wants to assess using an enhanced sky crane system, which delivered the Curiosity and the Perseverance rovers to the planet’s surface successfully. The MSR sky crane would need to be about 20% larger than systems previously flown.
NASA also could decide to buy a commercial lander, such as a variant of SpaceX’s Starship or Blue Origin’s Blue Moon crewed lunar landers, both of which are in development to support its Artemis program. The agency would like to issue a request for proposals for commercial Mars lander preliminary design work in the next few months, MSR Program Director Jeff Gramling says.
Nelson said NASA should be in a position to decide in 2026 between the sky crane or a commercial lander. Either option would cut the $11 billion MSR mission cost 30-47% and return the samples in the mid-to-late 2030s—1-5 years sooner than the original plan.
The program needs at least $300 million this year to remain on track, Nelson said Jan. 7 during a conference call with reporters. The Senate is allocating $200 million in fiscal 2025 for MSR program development, while the House has budgeted $600 million, he added.
Nelson said he had not discussed the revised MSR architecture with Trump’s nominee to head NASA, Jared Isaacman, or members of the incoming administration. “What we wanted to do was to give them the best possible options,” Nelson said. “If they want to have a Mars sample return—which I can’t imagine that they don’t—I don’t think we want the only sample return coming back on a Chinese spacecraft.”
China has announced plans for a Mars mission launching in 2028 that includes sending a sample back to Earth.
“Our [sample return] . . . is an extremely well-thought-out mission created by the scientific community of the world [to assess] various sites in and around Jezero Crater that will give us a picture of the historical record when there was water there,” Nelson said. “You compare that to—at least what has been said publicly by the Chinese government—that they’re just going to . . . go to a landing site of their choosing, grab a sample and go. That does not give you the comprehensive look for the science community.
“You cannot compare the two missions,” he added. “Of course, people will say there is a race, but it’s two totally different missions.”
Perseverance so far has filled 22 cigar-size tubes with rock cores, two tubes with regolith and one with an atmospheric sample. It also carries three so-called witness tubes for calibrations. Thirteen tubes remain to be filled.
“It is of utmost importance to us that we bring back these samples to Earth as quickly as possible,” NASA Science Associate Administrator Nicola Fox said. “To do that, we needed to get very creative.”
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