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

NASA proposes cost-effective plan to return Mars samples by 2030, offering two options under $7 billion.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (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 Tuesday (January 7, 2025), less than two weeks before stepping down as NASA’s chief when President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated.

Mr. 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.

NASA last year asked industry and others to come up with better options to ensure the samples collected in cigar-size tubes 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,” Mr. Nelson said.

The space agency said it is considering two options that would cost in the $6 billion to $7 billion range, including one that would feature innovative designs by commercial partners. 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, following engineering studies laying out the details of each option. The more traditional alternative would use the same landing method that lowered NASA’s Perseverance and Curiosity rovers onto the Martian surface — a rocket-steered platform known as a sky crane. The second option would include a landing system developed by private companies; details were short on this path during the latest update.