NASA Exploring Mars Sample Return Options

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): One of the sample return canisters on the surface of Mars. (NASA)

With the pending budget cuts at NASA, the space agency is exploring new options for getting soil and rock samples back to Earth from MARs. To do this, NASA is setting it sights on 10 studies to identify new approaches to accomplish this mission, 7 of which come from private contractors and the other 3 from NASA centers, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, and Johns Hopkins’ Applied Physics Laboratory.

The seven private sector parties of interest and related proposals from earlier this year are as follows:

  • Lockheed Martin in Littleton, Colorado: “Lockheed Martin Rapid Mission Design Studies for Mars Sample Return”
  • SpaceX in Hawthorne, California: “Enabling Mars Sample Return With Starship”
  • Aerojet Rocketdyne in Huntsville, Alabama: “A High-Performance Liquid Mars Ascent Vehicle, Using Highly Reliable and Mature Propulsion Technologies, to Improve Program Affordability and Schedule”
  • Blue Origin in Kent, Washington: “Leveraging Artemis for Mars Sample Return”
  • Quantum Space in Rockville, Maryland: “Quantum Anchor Leg Mars Sample Return Study”
  • Northrop Grumman in Elkton, Maryland: “High TRL MAV Propulsion Trades and Concept Design for MSR Rapid Mission Design”
  • Whittinghill Aerospace in Camarillo, California: “A Rapid Design Study for the MSR Single Stage Mars Ascent Vehicle”

It is not clear why such a review needed to wait until so late in the game. NASA is always facing budget crunches. Maybe this can be a model for other ventures in the future as well.