NASA Is Asking for Help to Return Samples That Could Uncover Life on Mars

The Mars Sample Return program is a joint NASA-ESA effort, with the goal of uncovering signs of ancient life on the Red Planet.

Jack Daleo

Monday, April 15, 2024 at 05:05 PM ET

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An artist’s illustration depicts the vehicles NASA initially planned to use to recover samples from its Perseverance Martian rover. [Courtesy: NASA]

Key Takeaways:

NASA's Mars Sample Return (MSR) program is undergoing a re-evaluation due to projected costs of $8-$11 billion and an "unacceptable" return date of 2040.
Administrator Bill Nelson is seeking "out-of-the-box" designs from the NASA community and industry to find a more affordable and timely solution.
The agency aims to leverage existing technology to reduce the mission's cost, complexity, and risk, targeting a sample return by the 2030s.
Without a more cost-effective approach, NASA warns that funding for other critical science missions could be impacted.

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NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has shared the space agency’s “revised path forward” for the Mars Sample Return program, a proposed NASA-European Space Agency (ESA) mission to return Martian rock and soil samples to Earth. NASA’s Perseverance rover has been collecting rock and soil samples on the Red Planet since 2021.

The agency is asking “the NASA community,” including its Jet Propulsion Laboratory and other agency centers, to collaborate on “out-of-the-box” designs, using existing technology, that could return the samples.