WASHINGTON – NASA is moving forward with work on a couple of missions to return the sample from Mars, although some in the planetary science community are worried about how the cost of this effort will affect other projects.
NASA announced on December 17 that it has approved the move of the Mars Sample Return (MSR) program to Phase A of development, working on the initial design of key missions and technologies. These missions include a sample return lander, whose development will be led by NASA with a rover provided by the European Space Agency and an orbiter led by ESA with a sample collection system provided by NASA.
According to current plans, both the lander and the orbiter will be launched in 2026. The lander would arrive near the landing site of the Mars 2020 mission, with the rover taking over cached samples from that mission. The Mars 2020 rover, Perseverance, can also deliver samples to the lander. These samples would be placed in a container on a small rocket on the lander, launching them into orbit around Mars. The orbiter would then collect the sample container and return it to Earth in 2031.
The decision to move to Phase A of the SRM comes after the launch on November 10 of a report by an Independent Evaluation Committee (IRB) that assessed the status and feasibility of the proposed missions. This review generally approved the continuation of the MSR program.
“We unanimously believe that the Mars Sample Return program should continue,” David Thompson, former executive director of Orbital ATK and chairman of the board, said in a media conference call about the report. “We believe that its scientific value would be extraordinarily high.”
NASA, in its December 17 announcement, said that a separate permanent review board for MSR also approved the move to Phase A. “Starting the Phase A formulation work is an important step for our team, although one of the most many that will follow, ”said Bobby Braun, MSR program manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a statement. “These analyzes have strengthened our plan ahead, and this step means creating a tangible approach to MSR based on the extraordinary capabilities of NASA centers, our ESA partners and industry.”
However, the independent analysis also raised questions about the cost and timing for MSR. He recommended delaying the launch of the lander by 2028 and the orbiter by 2027 or 2028. Thompson said the programs for the two missions “were considered by the IRB to be incompatible with NASA’s recent experience.”
This review also concluded that these missions will cost more than NASA had planned. While NASA estimates a cost to the agency of $ 2.9-3.3 billion for those phases of the MSR, the IRB concluded that a more realistic cost estimate was $ 3.8-4.4 billion. These estimates do not include Mars 2020, which will cost NASA $ 2.7 billion by its first March year of operations, and ESA’s projected contribution of $ 1.5 billion ($ 1.85 billion).
The cost of MSR is a concern for some planetary scientists, who are worried about the effect it will have on the rest of NASA’s planetary science portfolio. This includes NASA’s ability to begin any large-scale mission recommended by the ongoing ten-year study of planetary science, which will present its final report in early 2022.
“This is a very important topic,” Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s planetary science division, said during a Dec. 14 town hall meeting that was part of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting in response to a question from a participant in the effect of MSR on the global global program. “I certainly recognize and understand that it is extremely important to maintain balance within the portfolio and that we continue to have funding to support other missions in the solar system.”
“We will rely heavily on that ten-year survey to determine what those priorities are and to help us provide that programmatic balance for all types of flight missions,” she added.
However, the ongoing ten-year study will not prioritize MSR over other proposed pilot-class planetary science missions. The previous decade-long survey, published in 2011, ranked a rover on Mars as a pilot mission to store samples, which became Mars 2020.
David Smith, director of study for the Decennial Planetary Science Study at National Academies, said during a Dec. 4 town hall hearing about the study at the AGU’s fall meeting that “special language” in terms of the survey means MSR would not be re-prioritized. in the new study. “But we are encouraged to comment on NASA’s current plans to implement the second and third phases of a Mars return campaign.”
This approach, he said, is similar to how decennial surveys in other scientific disciplines, such as astrophysics, have dealt with iconic missions that ranked very well in a study but did not yet have the flight. until the next study was ongoing. “The sponsor, NASA, does not want us, in a sense, to upset the apple cart, but to make some kind of comment about whether it is going in the right direction.”
In the case of the MSR, Smith stated that the ten-year survey requested budgetary information about the program, as well as a presentation of the IRB report. The presentation took place at a December 16 meeting of the survey steering committee.