Life on Mars? Will we ever get those samples?

NASA faces pushback from its allies

One of NASA’s biggest science projects faces serious struggles ahead. We’ve seen some great successes from the Perseverance Mars Mission. The rover has sent back amazing pictures of the area it is exploring. The small helicopter that came along on the mission has flown successfully many more times than expected. But will this mission be completed?

A core job of Perseverance is collecting Martian soil in an attempt to determine if there was life on the red planet. Perseverance has been digging, drilling, and dropping sample tubes on its trip. Some duplicate samples are being kept on board the rover, too. 

Perseverance rover with a sample tube dropped on the Martian surface. (Credit: NASA)

The plan has always been to send other spacecraft to Mars to bring those samples to Earth. Those plans and costs for the Mars Sample Return Mission (MSR) have undergone massive changes. But the biggest threat now to the MSR may come from some of NASA’s allies, who are seriously questioning the agency’s efforts to bring some of Mars to Earth.

ORIGINAL PLAN

A couple years ago, NASA and its partner, the European Space Agency (ESA), planned to send three vehicles to Mars to pick up those tubed samples. One spacecraft would carry a pickup rover, which would motor around the surface to pick up the samples dropped by Perseverance. The worry is that Perseverance may no longer be operating by the time the return mission arrives. A second vehicle would land and be loaded with the samples. Its built-in ascent vehicle would get the samples to orbit and rendezvous with an ESA spacecraft for the trip to Earth.

Captions mark where sample tubes have been dropped by the NASA rover. (Credit: NASA)

This time last year those plans changed dramatically. One of the vehicles, the ESA pickup rover, was summarily eliminated. At the time the head of NASA Science, Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, said, “new studies and recent achievements” led to the decision to cut the pickup vehicle. 

EUROPEAN RETREAT

Last month the head of NASA told US Senators a much different story. ESA realized, he said, that it couldn’t build the pickup rover for the budget approved and dropped out, leaving NASA with no way to get the samples to a lander. NASA Administrator, former Democratic US Senator, Bill Nelson said the ESA design, “evaporated in mid-air.” 

That led to the engineering scramble and all those changes. Now, NASA hopes Perseverance will still be alive and able to deliver the tubes to the US-built lander. If not, two small helicopters will go pick up the dropped samples and bring them to the lander for loading. Administrator Nelson, in asking for even more money for MSR for next year, said, “this is all gee-wiz stuff.”

FUNDING REQUEST REJECTED

Senators from his own party are saying, “gee-wiz” when it comes to MSR. The Senate Appropriations Committee said it is “alarmed” by increasing costs and slipped launch dates, “causing NASA to delay other high priority [science] missions.” During a hearing last month, Democrat Sen. Chris Van Hollen asked the NASA Administrator why Congress should increase funding for a program, “that has not stacked up well?”

Not only did the Senate Appropriations committee reject Nelson’s request for added money, it approved less than a third of what the agency wanted. MSR would get just $300 million for 2024. 

The Committee laid down the law for NASA. Senators expect MSR to cost a total of $5.3 billion. That’s been the long-term plan for this highly technical mission. The Committee went so far as to say if NASA can’t get those samples back to Earth for the $5.3 billion it should, “de-scope or rework MSR or face mission cancellation.” Those are Democrats, telling the Democrat running the agency that this mission may have to be canceled. That is looking like a real possibility because recent reporting suggests NASA executives now expect the cost of MSR to hit $8 to $9 billion.  

Perseverance continues to do its job on the surface of Mars collecting rock, soil, and air samples. Will those tubes ever leave Mars?