We shared with you in a previous news that NASA’s mission to bring samples taken from Mars soil and rocks to our planet was facing financial problems. Not long after this news, the space agency announced that the Mars Sample Return mission was suspended due to current budget problems. According to the report, the current plan was found to be unrealistic earlier this year, and now the space agency is working to find fallback options.
According to Space Policy Online, NASA announced that the mission to bring samples from Mars was stopped due to increasing costs and delays. Last week, three of the mission-related NASA centers were advised to begin “pulling back” mission-related activities.
NASA had initially requested a budget of $949.3 million for the Mars Sample Return mission during its 2024 budget proposal. However, the subcommittee responsible for overseeing the agency’s budget allocated only $300 million and asked them to submit a year-by-year funding profile for it. If NASA can’t meet the demands here, it could face more than just a pause in its Mars Sample Return mission.
Although NASA says it is working on alternative ways to bring the samples collected by Perseverance back to Earth, it is currently unclear exactly how long this pause will last. NASA also recently returned to Earth some of the first asteroid samples collected from the asteroid Bennu. Although we have not yet seen a complete list of the collected samples, everyone is excited to study soil from other planets and cosmic objects.
Unfortunately, NASA’s dream of bringing rock samples from Mars to Earth may even be over if the agency can’t find a more cost-effective solution.
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