![An illustration of the proposed Mars Sample Return Program architecture. Credit: NASA](https://www.spaceflightinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/msr_graphic_-_arm.jpg)
An illustration of the proposed Mars Sample Return Program architecture. Credit: NASA
The USA Senate is urging NASA to take immediate steps to rein within the budget of the Mars Sample Return mission, else this system faces cancellation.
Mars Sample Return, or MSR, is a program in partnership between NASA and the European Space Agency to bring back samples from the Red Planet. Those samples are currently being cached by the Perseverance rover, which has been exploring Jezero Crater since February 2021.
Over the past several years, Congress has allocated some $1.7 billion on the event of the ambitious project, which has yet to undergo a preliminary design review. Originally, the lifetime cost of this system was estimated to be around $5.3 billion with launch projected within the late 2020s. Nevertheless, a story by Ars Technica suggests the whole cost of MSR might be around $10 billion when all is claimed and done.
![An illustration of the Mars Sample Retrieval Lander that would carry a 10-foot (3-meter) ascent rocket to Jezero Crater. Credit: NASA](https://www.spaceflightinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/PIA25277.jpg)
An illustration of the Mars Sample Retrieval Lander that will carry a 10-foot (3-meter) ascent rocket to Jezero Crater. Credit: NASA
Senate concerned about ballooning costs
Recently, the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, liable for overseeing NASA’s funding, expressed its concern over the escalating costs and chronic delays related to MSR. In a July 13 report accompanying its proposed NASA budget for 2024, the committee emphasized that despite previous funding up to now, the project’s launch date continues to slide, straining NASA’s financial resources and compromising other critical scientific priorities.
As such, the Senate report directs NASA to offer an in depth funding plan inside 180 days of the 2024 budget’s enactment throughout the originally estimated budget.
“If NASA is unable to offer the Committee with a MSR lifecycle cost profile throughout the $5,300,000,000 budget profile, NASA is directed to either provide options to de-scope or rework MSR or face mission cancellation,” the Senate report reads.
NASA also appears concerned concerning the increased cost and scope of this system. In April, the agency convened an independent review board to evaluate this system’s technical progress, schedule and costs. Its report is due in late August.
Within the report, it notes the 2022 Planetary Science Decadal Survey said the completion of the MSR program needs to be the best priority of NASA’s robotic exploration efforts. Nevertheless, the survey also said this priority mustn’t come on the expense of other high-priority science programs.
![The Senate report urges NASA to provide the committee with an MSR lifecycle within the $5.3 billion budget profile. Credit: The US Senate](https://www.spaceflightinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-17-085712.png)
The Senate report urges NASA to offer the committee with an MSR lifecycle throughout the $5.3 billion budget profile. Credit: The US Senate
The Senate report raised concerns concerning the budgetary implications of the MSR mission, given its rising cost. The mission consumed a fifth of the NASA Planetary Science Devision’s budget in 2022 and greater than 1 / 4 in 2023.
In light of those concerns, the report has really helpful allocating $300 million for the MSR project in fiscal yr 2024, bringing the whole cost up to now to over $2 billion. For comparison, the unique White House request released in March, proposed $949 million for this system.
The report emphasizes NASA must present a comprehensive funding profile throughout the established budget, or face potential cancellation or significant restructuring of the mission to cut back costs. Within the event of mission cancellation, the Senate committee has outlined a reallocation plan for the funding originally designated for MSR.
This proposed reallocation includes $235 million for the Artemis program, $30 million for the Dragonfly mission to Saturn’s moon Titan, $5 million for a flagship orbiter probe to explore Uranus, and $30 million for the Geospace Dynamics Constellation mission.
Moreover, if NASA proceeds with the MSR mission, the Senate “encourages” the agency to determine a Sample Receiving Facility in a state that doesn’t currently host a NASA facility. The report said the prioritization of national laboratories under the stewardship of the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, particularly those with proven bioanalytical scientific capabilities, biological and environmental research facilities, and biodefense capabilities.
To deal with these facility requirements, NASA can also be directed to submit a comprehensive plan to the Senate no later than 180 days after the budget’s enactment. The report said the plan should outline the ability’s specifications, construction timeline, estimated costs and the factors used to find out the ability’s location.
There remains to be a protracted method to go within the budgetary process for fiscal yr 2024, which begins Oct. 1, 2023. The U.S. House of Representatives also has a proposed budget for NASA. It and the Senate might want to agree on a final budget to send to President Biden for his signature to make it law.
![A map of the sample tubes dropped at “Three Forks Sample Depot” as a backup in case the Perseverance rover is unable to return to a sample retrieval lander. Under the current MSR plan, a drone would be able to pick up the backup tubes to bring to the lander. Credit: NASA](https://www.spaceflightinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/1559_PIA25736-FigureC.jpg)
A map of the sample tubes dropped at “Three Forks Sample Depot” as a backup in case the Perseverance rover is unable to return to a sample retrieval lander. Under the present MSR plan, a drone would give you the chance to select up the backup tubes to bring to the lander. Credit: NASA
The present plan for Mars Sample Return
Returning samples from Mars technically began with the Perseverance rover. It’s currently collecting samples at Jezero Crater.
Under the MSR program, a sample retrieval lander would touch down in Jezero Crater. The samples collected by Perseverance could be retrieved and loaded right into a container on an ascent rocket, which might then blast into orbit around Mars.
In a 2022 architecture change, due to success of the Ingenuity helicopter accompanying Perseverance, the MSR mission plan now includes two “Ingenuity-class” drones. They might be sent on the sample retrieval lander to act as a backup to the capabilities of Perseverance in delivering sample tubes to the lander. A “fetch rover” previously planned to be utilized in this backup capability was scrapped.
One other spacecraft, built by the European Space Agency, would capture the sample container in Mars orbit before bringing them back to Earth for extensive evaluation in state-of-the-art laboratories.
By examining these pristine Martian samples, scientists hope to realize unprecedented insights into the planet’s geological history, potential signs of past or present life and the opportunity of habitability.
The present proposed timeline has the sample retrieval lander launching in 2028 and the orbiter in 2027 with the sample’s arrival on Earth in 2033.
Nevertheless, all of that is determined by the consequence of NASA’s independent review board and the agency’s ability to fulfill the Senate’s demands to regulate this system’s costs, should it grow to be law. Otherwise, the samples currently being collected by Perseverance face an uncertain fate.