Nasa bid for low-cost Mars sample mission, mocked by Boeing's lofty idea
Views: 1469Published on: 12-May-2024
NASA has invited ideas from the space industry to bring rock samples back from Mars on a budget, which it doesn't want to exceed a budget of $11 billion under its homegrown plan, Arstechnica reported Saturday.
The first aerospace company that turned out to the early bird is Boeing, but is hardly likely to catch the worm as it's idea is the most expensive one.
Boeing's plan for a Mars Sample Return mission, which involves using the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, a heavy-lift launcher that is designed to send astronauts to the Moon on NASA's Artemis missions.
The company has presented this concept at the annual Humans to Mars summit, where Jim Green, NASA's former chief scientist, discussed the mission plan. Boeing has proposed the SLS as a rocket for military satellites and deep space probes, despite it being primarily designed as a crew launch vehicle.
Green said the idea he and Boeing pitched was capable of cutting the risks of Mars Sample Return. "With one mission, there are fewer points of potential failure. To reduce mission complexity, this new concept is doing one launch," Green said.
Despite all the good things that come with it, the Space Launch System (SLS) remains the most expensive projectile in operation.
Even if NASA and Boeing make all-out efforts to trim other expenses it is unlikely for them to keep the cost of a single SLS launch less than $2 billion, per a report by the Inspector General of NASA published last year.
As an alternative to SLS for future Artemis missions, the Inspector General recommended that NASA should consider purchasing commercial rockets.
Meanwhile, NASA's Perseverance rover, which has been working on Mars since February 2021, is collecting soil and rock samples and storing them in small, titanium tubes.
The rover has deposited the first 10 tubes in a depot on the Martian surface, which can be retrieved by a future sample return mission.
The remaining tubes will probably remain on Perseverance, with the hope that the rover will directly hand over the samples to the spacecraft that comes to Mars to collect them.
Green emphasised the advantages of executing a Mars Sample Return mission using a solitary rocket and spacecraft.
Whereas, NASA's existing plan requires two launches, one carrying a US-made lander and a small rocket to launch the samples off of the Mars. And another carrying a European spacecraft to dock with the sample carrier in orbit around Mars and bring specimens to Earth.