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 program faces a major overhaul due to its estimated cost of $8-$11 billion (double previous estimates) and an "unacceptable" return date of 2040.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson is calling for "out-of-the-box" designs from the NASA community and industry, using existing technology, to reduce costs, complexity, and achieve a sample return by the 2030s.
The agency's revised path aims to prevent the mission from jeopardizing funding for other critical science projects while still pursuing the scientifically vital return of Martian samples collected by the Perseverance rover.

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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.