NASA’s billion-dollar Mars sample mission faces a setback as Trump signals intent to cut funding

The samples from the Martian surface, collected after spending billions of dollars, might have to be left behind.

PUBLISHED 10 HOURS AGO

The Mars Rover explores the surface of the planet and records its findings about the hills and rock formations (Representative Cover Photo by piranka / Getty Images)

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has been gathering data at the Jezero Crater to study the signs of past water, atmospheric conditions and the potential of life on Mars. Samples of rock and soil have been stored in hermetically sealed metal tubes to be returned to Earth, as per Scientific American. However, studying the first evidence of life on Mars might just be a dream as NASA might be forced to abandon them on the surface due to budgetary reasons. After the Trump administration planned a budget cut for NASA, a lot of missions of the agency have been facing setbacks, and the Mars Sample Return (MSR) is expected to be cancelled.

Angular and smooth surface of rocks are seen in an image taken by the panoramic camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit on January 6, 2003. (Representative Photo by NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory/ Cornell University via Getty Images)

The Mars Sample Return (MSR) was a collaborative effort between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). The proposal for elimination of the program claimed that MSR was “grossly overbudget” and its goal to return the samples would “be achieved by human missions to Mars.” MSR was to be the first “round-trip mission to another planet” that would launch from Mars. However, several independent reviews of the MSR project had highlighted the increased budget that could cost about $11 billion to return the samples to Earth in 2040.

NASA’s Perseverance rover fires up its descent stage engines as it nears the Martian surface to land in the area known as Jezero crater on the planet Mars. (Representative Photo illustration by NASA via Getty Images)

Donya Douglas-Bradshaw, director for the MSR program, shared in a meeting of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) that the cost was too high and the time frame was too slow to be approved. A revised review proposed the return of samples by 2035 for a cost of around $8 billion, which inspired NASA to reconsider. NASA studied two options to bring back the Perseverance samples, which involved innovation from the private sector and leveraging preexisting 'heritage' hardware, according to the reports of Scientific American.

NASA's Perseverance (Mars 2020) rover will store rock and soil samples in sealed tubes on the planet's surface for future missions to retrieve in the area known as Jezero crater on the planet Mars. (Representative Photo illustration by NASA via Getty Images)

MEPAG chair Victoria Hamilton, a space scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, stated that cancelling the entire project was counterproductive. It was a waste of money and effort, and would also overthrow U.S. space leadership on the global front. The project was ranked as the highest priority of U.S. planetary science in two consecutive Decadal Surveys, as pointed out by Hamilton. “It’s crucially important that NASA maintain U.S. leadership in deep space by pursuing the ambitious goals outlined in our Decadal Surveys, lest we cede leadership to other nations, such as China,” she added.

The Echus Chasma, one of the largest water source regions on Mars, is pictured from ESA's Mars Express. The data was acquired on September 25, 2005. (Representative Photo by ESA via Getty Images)

Though a crewed mission to Mars was the long-term goal and one that was favored by the Trump administration, returning samples through them is a long wait. Experts wonder when these samples would reach Earth if they were going to wait for humans to land on Mars. They are also competing with China, which devised a simpler Mars sampling method that would function by 2030. It was likely that the plan was to extract samples available at reach without probing at length, unlike the methodical approach of the MSR that would deliver in sample and terrain.

Still image of NASA’s Perseverance rover as it touched down in the area known as Jezero crater on February 18, 2021, on the planet Mars. (Photo by NASA via Getty Images) — Still image of NASA’s Perseverance rover as it touched down in the area known as Jezero crater on February 18, 2021, on the planet Mars. (Representative Photo by NASA via Getty Images)

“Random rocks will almost certainly not answer the big questions that MSR is designed to answer, such as the age of the Martian surface, the possible presence of biosignatures and the nature of Mars’ ancient atmosphere,” stated Casey Dreier, the chief of space policy at the Planetary Society, a non-profit organization, as per the outlet. “That’s the weakness in China’s ‘grab-and-go’ approach,” she added. The scientific community hoped that the MSR project would not be replaced with the crewed mission to Mars so that they would be able to ascertain whether life exists on Mars.