NASA To Rewrite Mars Sample Return Mission So It Can Happen

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

NASA is considering alternative ways to bring back samples from Mars after its budget and schedule for the sample return mission was deemed unrealistic in a recent report by an independent review board.

[...] In late September, an independent review board issued its final report on NASA's Mars Sample Return mission (MSR). The space agency's quest to collect samples from the Red Planet and bring them back to Earth was referred to as a highly constrained and challenging campaign," with unrealistic budget and schedule expectations from the beginning."

[...] NASA has been struggling to manage the budget of its highly complex mission so that it can launch it on schedule. In fact, the report stated that there's a a near zero probability" that the lander and orbiter would be ready for launch in 2028. The report also suggested that the mission's full lifecycle cost will likely range between $8 billion and $11 billion, far more than what NASA had originally planned for.

The mission received $822.3 million in the 2023 spending bill and NASA requested $949.3 million for Mars Sample Return in its budget proposal for 2024. In April, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson revealed that the Mars Sample Return mission needs an additional $250 million in the current fiscal year, plus another $250 million in 2024, in order to stay on track for launch in 2028.

Read more of this story at SoylentNews.