As Perseverance rover It rumbled. Mars They surveyed the terrain, collected rocks and spent the summer thinking about how they could help. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Bring samples back to Earth.
US space The agency’s mission is to Even the air From the Red Planet Mars Sample ReturnI’m in trouble. Independent Review The unprecedented project is expected to cost more than $11 billion and take nearly 20 years to complete.
The mission management problems came at a bad time, as hundreds of scientists and engineers working on the project at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory I lost my jobIt has borne the brunt of NASA’s budget cuts over the past two years.
In a desperate plea, NASA Call for proposals After soliciting input from the aerospace industry and reaching out to other campuses for ideas on how to save the mission, NASA in June selected seven companies from 48 proposals to develop concepts over the next three months. SpaceXBlue Origin, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Northrop Grumman, Quantum Space and Whitting Hill Aerospace received up to $1.5 million each to advance their research.
From NASA’s ongoing development of a reusable lunar lander Operation Artemis According to public records reviewed by Mashable, the companies are proposing several new strategies and approaches, often involving proprietary hardware, to rethink that final leg of the journey.
“Mars Sample Return is one of the most complex missions NASA has ever undertaken, and it is critical that we do it faster, with less risk and at lower cost,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. statement“We look forward to seeing the vision these companies, centers and partners bring to the table as we explore fresh, inspiring and innovative ideas to unlock the Red Planet’s great cosmic secrets.”
A space company is heading to Mars this fall. No, it’s not SpaceX.
The Perseverance rover is dropping a set of sample tubes filled with rocks and soil onto the Martian ground for later retrieval.
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
Since landing on Mars in 2021, Perseverance has 25 of 38 sample tubes NASA hopes to retrieve at least a few rock and soil samples and bring them back to Earth in the 2030s, and to do so, it plans to use a rover to deliver the samples to Earth. A robotic lander equipped with a rocketIf the probe is unable to travel, a drone similar to that of the recently deceased probe may be used. Ingenuity Helicopter It picks them up and flies them to the lander.
Once the tube is launched into space, an orbiter built by the European Space Agency will transport it to Earth, about 140 million miles away (the distance is constantly changing, since both planets are constantly moving).
A chalk-sized core of Martian rock inside the drill of the Perseverance rover.
Credits: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / MSSS
The pressure to find a solution has grown since July, when NASA announced that Perseverance had found leopard-spotted rocks in an ancient dried-up riverbed. Have characteristics that may have been formed by microorganisms Billions of years ago, the Earth was warmer and wetter than it is today.
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While NASA doesn’t claim to have found evidence of life, the rover’s instruments have detected organic compounds in rocks that could be the building blocks of life on this world, at least. But the only way to know for sure whether those compounds are from biological or geological processes is to take samples, bring them back, and subject them to rigorous analysis.
“It’s a reminder that if we find evidence of extraterrestrial life for the first time in human history, nobody cares if it costs $6 billion or $11 billion,” Casey Dreier, senior space policy adviser at the nonpartisan Planetary Society, told Mashable.
The Mars Sample Return mission will be the first human-made mission launched from another planet.
Credit: NASA
How private companies change their missions
Mashable’s review of the proposal summaries found that many of the ideas put forward by the seven companies are focused on the Mars Ascent Vehicle, the rocket that will launch Martian samples into space, suggesting that insiders may have identified the MAV as one of the main issues. The mission would be humanity’s first attempt to launch from another planet. Proposals from Aerojet Rocketdyne, Whitting Hill Aerospace and Northrop Grumman all suggest ways to make the rocket and the lander that will bring it down to the surface lighter and smaller.
Aerojet Rocketdyne went a step further, arguing that if NASA could reduce the mass of its Mars rocket, the team might be able to reuse it. Sky Crane The landing system that landed the Mars rovers Perseverance and Curiosity on the Martian surface for this mission.
Lockheed Martin is considering whether NASA can model previous missions on it. discovery and Breaking new groundThe company’s proposal calls for a $1 million planetary exploration mission, with a cost cap in the multi-million dollar range. These relatively low-cost missions are typically developed faster because they involve private space companies as partners and are pre-approved by Congress.
And, of course, Lockheed thinks it can get the job done. The company said it will evaluate how replacing government equipment or reducing the number of samples collected could help reduce costs. Lockheed has a long track record, having previously developed 11 Mars rovers for NASA, Lisa May, the company’s deep space exploration strategy manager, said in a statement to Mashable.
“It’s a reminder that if we’re going to find the first evidence of extraterrestrial life in human history, nobody cares if it costs $6 billion or $11 billion.”
New space companies are also part of this. Elon MuskSpaceX Starship It’s expected to be built into the mission architecture in some form, and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is exploring how NASA could use its Artemis lunar lander. It’s called a blue moonBoth spacecraft would be capable of carrying heavier loads than the landers and rockets currently in development, freeing NASA from having to make tough choices about which samples to leave behind on Mars.
While most of the concepts seem to focus on reducing the cost of sample return, Quantum Space’s proposal seeks to redesign a much later part of the journey. Its plan would involve handing over the samples from a European probe to a Quantum lunar orbiter, which would then eventually drop them off above Earth for collection. Utah Desert LandingQuantum says the company is calling this the “anchor leg concept,” and that it’s a way to reduce the short-term costs of the mission.
“Using our commercially developed spacecraft to achieve one of the top priority goals in solar system exploration is a great example of a successful public-private partnership,” said Quantum co-founder and CIO Ben Reed. statement“Roll up your sleeves and get ready to dive in!”
The Mars rover Perseverance will use tools to drill holes in rocks to collect samples.
Credits: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU
Why Mars Sample Return is in Peril
NASA and the scientific community have been pursuing exploration of Mars rocks since 1978. Viking Missionsaid The Planetary Society’s Dreyer.
To protect Mars Sample Return from inconsistent support from Congress, NASA designed and organized the science effort as follows: Manned Space Flight PlanThe development is spread across all NASA campuses, with job openings across the country. But that approach appears to have led to infighting, he said. “When you make a change to one vehicle or mission phase at one NASA center, it has a cascading effect that requires redesign of other parts being developed at other centers.”
And lacking a bigger-picture message about the importance of the mission, Mars Sample Return never garnered the same political support that lawmakers have in the past when they focused on completing lunar missions, Dreier said. But he’s cautiously optimistic that NASA’s willingness to address these issues now will get the project back on track.
“NASA is trying to figure out how to break through the logjam of bureaucratic management that has been entrenched in this program and holding it back,” he said. “I think this is a near-death experience that’s really shaken everybody’s complacency.”
