Anyone who hoped for a clear path in the future this year for the mission of returning samples in danger of NASA will have to wait a little longer.
The agency has settled Two potential strategies For the first efforts to bring back the rocks and the soil of another planet to the earth to study, the administrator of NASA, Bill Nelson, said on Tuesday: he can be exploited existing technology in a simpler and cheaper profession or turn to a trading partner for a new design.
But the final decision on the structure of the mission – or if it should take place at all – “will be a function of the new administration,” said Nelson. President -elected Donald Trump will take office on January 20.
“I do not think that we want the only sample (March) which looks back on a Chinese spacecraft,” said Nelson, referring to a rival mission that Beijing has in preparation. “I think the administration (Trump) will certainly conclude that they want to continue. So what we wanted to do was give them the best possible options so that they can start from there.”
The call also contained words of encouragement for the NASA jet propulsion laboratory at La Cañada Flintridge, which leads engineering efforts of the besieged mission.
“To put it really, JPL is our Mars Center in NASA science,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator of the Directorate of the Scientific Mission. “These are the people who landed us on Mars, with our industry partners. They will therefore move forward, whatever the path, with a key role in the return of the Mars sample. ”
In April, after an independent journal found “near the zero probability” of return from the Mars sample, which made its launch date in 2028, NASA released a Request for alternative proposals to all its centers and in the private sector. JPL was forced to compete in what had been his own project.
The independent examination committee determined that the original design would probably cost up to $ 11 billion and would not return samples to land before at least 2040.
“It was simply unacceptable,” said Nelson, who interrupted the mission at the end of 2023 to review his chances of success.
The cuts that followed in the mission budget forced a series of dismissals at JPLwhich dropped 855 employees and 100 entrepreneurs on site in 2024.
The option led by NASA that Nelson suggested on Tuesday includes several elements of the JPL proposal, according to a person who examined the documents. This leaner and simpler alternative will cost between $ 6.6 billion and $ 7.7 billion, and will return the samples by 2039, he said. A commercial alternative would probably cost $ 5.8 billion to $ 7.1 billion.
Nelson, a former American Democratic senator from Florida, resigned as head of the space agency when Trump takes up his duties. Trump has Nominated as his successor Jared Isaacman, a technological billionaire who carried out the first private space promenade, who must be confirmed by the Senate.
NASA had no conversation with Trump's transition team on the return of the March sample, said Nelson. The way the new administration prioritizes the project is not yet clear.
“It is very uncertain how the new administration goes ahead,” said Casey DreierHead of space policy for the Planetary Society, a non -profit organization in Pasadena who promotes space research. “The cancellation is obviously always on the table. … It is difficult to play this.”
Planetary scientists have identified the return of the March sample as the highest priority of their field in the last three decennial surveys, reports that the National academies of science, engineering and medicine Prepare every 10 years to advise NASA.
The end of the mission is “the key to country leadership in space science,” said Bethany L. EhlmannA planetary scientist from Caltech in Pasadena. “I hope the incoming administrator is decisively to select a plan and execute. There are extraordinary engineers at JPL and the partners of the NASA industry eager and capable of working to get there. ”
