Due to budget constraints, the first major mission to return samples from Mars will be in the air.

This is one of the most ambitious missions of our erathe first major expedition to collect material from Martian soil and transport it back to Earth, and a pioneering project that sought to deliver materials from another planet directly into our hands. As the US space agency NASA has just announced, the landmark Mars Sample Return mission is coming soon. difficulty due to lack of budget. The original plan cannot be implemented, so either alternative methods of accomplishing the mission are sought, or this great scientific project in which Europe is also involvedit may end in nothing.

According to the latest agency data, total mission budget significantly exceeded initial expectations. Recent estimates indicate that, with the current design, development the project will cost approximately $11 billion. It is also estimated that in the best case scenario, if everything goes according to plan and no problems arise that delay (or make the project even more expensive), the mission will achieve its mission no earlier than the 2040 horizon.”The project is too expensive And return date is too far away” said Bill Nelson, NASA’s general administrator, in a press release.

There are two problems. On the one hand, what mission budget increased exponentially and exceeded expected estimates. On the other hand, the US Senate implemented “sharp cuts” to its space budget this year (and probably those who will come). This latest decision, announced last summer, has sparked a race within the space agency to decide whether to save the spacecraft. Mars exploration program, led by the Mars Sample Return project, or if they were betting on a lunar program led by the Artemis missions. Finally, after months of debate, the balance seems to have broken. leaned in favor of plans to return to the moon.

Finding (cheap) alternatives

But Mars mission destination It hasn’t been written yet. As NASA announced yesterday, alternatives to accomplish this mission are already being sought. The agency appealed to private businesses to propose alternative projects that allow you to significantly reduce costs. NASA officials, for their part, are also working to “create a mission that is less complex, more sustainable, and easier to coordinate.” Then the goal will be to implement mission capable of going to Marscollect all the material samples that the Martian robots have been collecting over the years deployed on the territory of the Red Planet and finally return them to Earth so they can be analyzed.

Budget cuts won’t just affect big space missions, like this one to Mars. In recent weeks, NASA announces massive layoffs in such prestigious centers as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena (according to recent data, more than 500 layoffs registered in the center and concluding more than 40 contracts with external companies). At the same time, the reduction of these projects may also affect cooperation contracts with the European Space Agency (ESA), one of the partners of the Mars project, as well as with companies such as SpaceX and Airbus, which also had areas of cooperation established within the framework of this initiatives.