NASA proposes cheaper, quicker way to get Mars rocks and soil to Earth

The US space agency NASA is pitching a cheaper and quicker way of getting rocks and soil back from Mars, after seeing its original plan swell to $11 billion. Administrator Bill Nelson presented a revised scenario on Tuesday, January 7, less than two weeks before stepping down as NASA’s chief when President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated.

Nelson said he “pulled the plug” months ago on the original sample return plan given the soaring costs and the delay in getting anything back from Mars before 2040. “That was just simply unacceptable,” Nelson said.

The pivot comes as China progresses towards a simpler “grab-and-go” sample return mission to the Red Planet “around 2028,” according to state media, potentially making it the first nation to achieve the feat.

NASA last year asked industry and others to come up with better options to ensure the samples collected by NASA’s Perseverance rover arrive here in the 2030s, well ahead of astronauts venturing to the red planet. “We want to return 30 titanium tubes as soon as possible at the cheapest price,” Nelson said

The space agency said it was considering two options that would cost in the $7 billion range, including one that would involve commercial partners. “You all know that SpaceX and Blue Origin have already been ones that have expressed an interest, but it could be others as well,” said Nelson.

The number of spacecraft and launches would remain the same, but NASA said the proposed options would streamline the mission. A final decision would come next year.

Perseverance has collected more than two dozen samples since its 2021 landing, with more to come in NASA’s high-priority search for signs of ancient, microscopic Martian life. Scientists want to analyze the samples from the red planet’s long-dry river delta in labs on Earth.

Meanwhile, China’s simpler mission could deliver samples years ahead of NASA, marking a significant symbolic victory. Nelson downplayed comparisons between the programs, emphasizing the complexity and scope of NASA’s effort. “You cannot compare the two – ours (…) is an extremely well thought-out mission created by the scientific community of the world,” he said.

Nelson said it will be up to the incoming administration to decide how best to retrieve the Mars samples and money needs to start flowing to accomplish it. For Nelson’s replacement, Trump has nominated tech billionaire Jared Isaacman, who’s rocketed into orbit twice on his own dime.

“What we wanted to do was to give them the best possible options so that they can go from here,” Nelson said.