The director of NASA recently announced technical difficulties leading to significant cost overruns for the Martian sample return mission in collaboration with ESA, with a projected sample return to Earth in 2040 deemed unacceptable. These issues are attributed to the “considerable technical, logistical, and financial challenges the highly complex mission faces,” explains Francis Rocard, head of Solar System exploration programs at CNES and Mars specialist. This mission, involving a round trip to Mars, three spacecraft, and four launches, including one unprecedented from Mars, “represents an unprecedented challenge and holds great scientific importance.” The return of Martian samples has been “recommended by American, European, and French scientific committees for over four decades.”
This sample return mission holds promises of major breakthroughs in various fields that “will significantly deepen our knowledge of Mars and address many questions regarding the possibility of past life on this planet.” Within these samples, scientists could study potential traces of ancient life, including microorganisms, fossils, or the presence of prebiotic organic molecules. “These discoveries could help answer the question of the possible existence of past life forms on Mars.”
While the risk of a multi-year mission delay and a new architecture is very real, “it seems unlikely that NASA will decide to cancel it,” believes Francis Rocard, noting that “nearly $2.5 billion has been invested in the Perseverance mission, which is tasked with collecting Martian samples for return to Earth.”
As for an increase in the mission’s budget, it is not a realistic prospect as it would come at the expense of other missions under study or in development. While the initial budget was $5.6 billion, the “current trajectory of the MSR development could lead” to delays in the return of Martian samples, potentially until the end of the decade.
The total cost is 11 billion dollars», which led the US Congress to “refuse to fund the mission at such a level”. This decision has significant consequences, notably for JPL constrained to reduce its workforce by 8%, which represents a major challenge for the organization and its future projects.
A call for ideas for a faster and less costly mission
Today, NASA is looking for ways to “bring back rocks collected on Mars to Earth more quickly and cost-effectively”. Surprisingly, it apparently does not have a satisfactory solution to offer! Therefore, it has launched a call for ideas to space industry professionals and the most innovative startups. This approach is “interesting for exploring new avenues and finding creative solutions to the challenges posed”. It is hoped that this approach will help identify “innovative ideas that could help address current challenges and open up new perspectives for the Mars sample return mission”. It will be interesting to see the results of this initiative and the solutions it could bring.
Francis Rocard, with extensive experience in Martian missions, remains confident in the realization of MSR and estimates “that regardless of the chosen architecture, the cost of this mission will range between 5.6 and 10 billion dollars”. This high cost is explained by the fact that the mission unfolds in successive stages, without the possibility of a backup. Thus, it is crucial that “each phase of the mission be meticulously planned and executed to ensure the success of the return of Martian samples. A single failure would condemn the entire mission”.
Perseverance used for the MSR mission
To simplify the mission and reduce its costs, Francis Rocard suggests leveraging “the Perseverance rover and its mobility to bring the samples to the Martian Ascent Vehicle (MAV)”. Originally, to transport the samples to the MAV, NASA and JPL were considering “using a ‘Fetch’ rover (which means to go get), which was ultimately abandoned in favor of two helicopters inherited from Ingenuity, but these were also abandoned”.
On the other hand, China is currently developing a simpler MSR mission, “inspired by the Chang’e 5 and Chang’e 6 lunar missions, including a shovel and a drill”. Unlike NASA and ESA’s mission, China plans to “recover the samples at the precise landing site of its vehicle” without any mobility, which reduces its scientific interest but simplifies the mission.
However, Perseverance and Curiosity have revealed that the landing sites “are not the best for searching for clues about ancient life on Mars”. According to NASA, over 90% of the Martian surface is not interesting for the question of the planet’s past habitability, being made up of basaltic rocks.The anhydrous basaltic samples collected by the Chinese mission are scientifically valuable, particularly for geochemists. These samples could provide essential data on the geological composition of Mars, its history, and dating, contributing to a better understanding of the planet’s formation, evolution, and the geological history of its surface.
On the contrary, sulfates and clay samples are of particular importance in the study of Martian life history. Clay is a sedimentary rock that forms in the presence of water, indicating that the region where they are found may have experienced warm and humid conditions in the past. These minerals may contain organic matter, a relic of possible ancient biological activity. This organic matter can act as biosignatures, evidence that it was produced by living organisms. The search for this organic matter justifies the mobility of the Perseverance rover, which is conducting multiple collections to maximize the chances of finding it. The organic matter will be analyzed by highly efficient instruments in terrestrial laboratories, requiring the need to bring back this valuable material.
### NASA Calls for Help in Returning Martian Soil Samples to Earth
Due to budget constraints, the mission to return Martian samples is postponed to at least 2040. NASA plans to seek industry architecture proposals for a potential sample return in the 2030s to reduce costs, risks, and mission complexity.
Following a report from an expert panel chaired by Orlando Figueroa, former Mars exploration director at NASA, questioning the feasibility of the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission published on September 21, the US space agency proposed several measures.
These include updating the mission’s design to reduce complexity, improve itsThe term “resilience” means to manage risks more proactively, strengthen accountability and coordination, all within a budget estimated between 8 and 11 billion dollars. Due to budget constraints for the 2025 fiscal year and the need to maintain a balanced scientific portfolio, the current mission plans to return samples by 2040. In its previous plan, there was a mission scheduled for the period 2028-2033.
## An Unprecedented Challenge for NASA
“Mars Sample Return will be one of the most complex missions ever undertaken by NASA. Ultimately, an $11 billion budget is too costly, and the return date of 2040 is too far,” said Bill Nelson, NASA’s chief administrator. “Landing and collecting samples safely, launching a rocket with the samples from another planet – which has never been done before – and safely transporting the samples over 33 million kilometers to Earth is no small feat. We need to think outside the box to find an affordable solution that allows us to retrieve samples in a reasonable timeframe.”
## Calls for Ideas to Return Samples in the 2030s
To address these challenges, NASA is calling on the scientific community to design an innovative Mars Sample Return mission based on proven technologies. Additionally, the agency plans to seek proposals for architectures from the industry for a sample return mission in the 2030s. The goal is to reduce costs, risks, and mission complexity while maintaining its scientific effectiveness.