The Senate Just Applied the Brakes to NASA's Mars Sample Return Program
Freeman writes:
The US Senate on Thursday slashed the budget for NASA's ambitious mission to return soil and rock samples from Mars' surface.
NASA had asked for $949 million to support its Mars Sample Return mission, or MSR, in fiscal year 2024. In its proposed budget for the space agency, released Thursday, the Senate offered just $300 million and threatened to take that amount away.
"The Committee has significant concerns about the technical challenges facing MSR and potential further impacts on confirmed missions, even before MSR has completed preliminary design review," stated the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies subcommittee in its report on the budget.
The committee report, obtained by Ars, noted that Congress has spent $1.739 billion on the Mars Sample Return mission to date but that the public launch date-currently 2028-is expected to slip, and cost overruns threaten other NASA science missions.
[...] The Senate's proposed budget for the Mars mission follows a report by Ars three weeks ago that delved into its exploding costs. Internally, NASA has been discussing scenarios in which the total mission costs might reach $9 billion.
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