NASA plans to bring samples from Mars during the 2030s, despite financial challenges

NASA indicated on Monday that it plans to bring the planet to Earth during the 2030s Martian soil samples Collected by the Perseverance robot, indeed At a cost ranging between 8,000 and 11,000 million dollarsDespite the financial challenges you face.

As the director of the US Space Agency, Bill Nelson, announced on Monday, they are still committed to collecting the samples, or some of them, that the spacecraft has begun collecting since its arrival to the Red Planet in 2021.

The NASA administrator stressed that according to the fiscal year 2025 budget, in addition to anticipating future budget constraints, based on the current mission design, Martian samples cannot be returned until 2040, which is a “very distant” date.

However, they have indicated that they will make modifications to get it through the 2030s.

“Land and collect Launching a rocket with samples from another planet (something that has never been done before) and safely transporting the samples more than 33 million miles to Earth is no easy task, the NASA administrator said.

The date and cost announced today represent an adjustment after modernizing the mission to “reduce complexity, improve flexibility, normalize risk, and increase accountability and coordination,” according to a report. NASA statement.

The above was a response to an independent report requested by the space agency and issued in September 2023, which estimated that the mission design was based on “unrealistic budget and programming.”

the Mars sample return Nelson confirmed Monday during a conference call that MSR “will be one of the most complex missions NASA has ever undertaken.”

The US space agency is asking its various departments to work on a revised plan that reduces the cost, risks and complexity of the mission.

Perseverance is collecting soil samples in Jezero Crater, north of the Martian equator, where it was discovered that the presence of rivers that crossed the crater wall would have turned it into a lake, according to scientists.

Includes a Martian sample return mission Send robots and other helicopters Based on Ingenuity, NASA's helicopter that completed its final flight on Mars in January of this year.