NASA’s Mars Sample Return project now overbudget
According to testimony by NASA’s administrator Bill Nelson to a Senate committee, its Mars Sample Return (MSR) project now needs a lot of additional funds in order to have any chance of staying on schedule.
Nelson told the Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee today that he just learned two weeks ago during a visit to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which is building MSR, that they need an additional $250 million this year and an additional $250 million above the request for FY2024 to stay on schedule for launch in 2028.
That FY2024 request warns that the projections for future MSR funding requirements are likely to grow and force NASA to descope the mission or reduce funding for other science projects. NASA just set up a second [independent review board] to take another look at the program.
The project is already beginning to suck money from other science missions, such as solar and astronomy and the Dragonfly mission to Saturn’s moon Titan. In addition, its method for getting the samples back to Earth remains somewhat uncertain due to ESA’s decision to not build a lander/rover for the mission, requiring JPL to propose the use of helicopters instead.
I predict Congress will fund everything, by simply printing more money as it nonchalantly continues to grow the national debt to levels unsustainable. Meanwhile, replacing the present very complex return concept — involving a lander, helicopters, an ascent rocket, and a return capsule (from Europe) — with a much cheaper and simpler option that is now on the horizon, Starship, does not seem to have occurred to any of the these government wonks.
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According to testimony by NASA’s administrator Bill Nelson to a Senate committee, its Mars Sample Return (MSR) project now needs a lot of additional funds in order to have any chance of staying on schedule.
Nelson told the Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee today that he just learned two weeks ago during a visit to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which is building MSR, that they need an additional $250 million this year and an additional $250 million above the request for FY2024 to stay on schedule for launch in 2028.
That FY2024 request warns that the projections for future MSR funding requirements are likely to grow and force NASA to descope the mission or reduce funding for other science projects. NASA just set up a second [independent review board] to take another look at the program.
The project is already beginning to suck money from other science missions, such as solar and astronomy and the Dragonfly mission to Saturn’s moon Titan. In addition, its method for getting the samples back to Earth remains somewhat uncertain due to ESA’s decision to not build a lander/rover for the mission, requiring JPL to propose the use of helicopters instead.
I predict Congress will fund everything, by simply printing more money as it nonchalantly continues to grow the national debt to levels unsustainable. Meanwhile, replacing the present very complex return concept — involving a lander, helicopters, an ascent rocket, and a return capsule (from Europe) — with a much cheaper and simpler option that is now on the horizon, Starship, does not seem to have occurred to any of the these government wonks.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Why doesn’t NASA rename the program the “Sample Late SNAFU” program”, so they can reuse all the propaganda materials they will have left over when SpaceX takes over the SLS program?
“… does seem to have occurred to any of the these government wonks.”
I have a feeling there should be a “not” in there.
What makes mars soil samples worth the expense? Will they provide a certain source of water, or some other materials of value?
Call Me Ishmael: I have insert the “not,” left out by mistake. Thank you.
NASA project over budget.
In other news,
Water is wet!
Dog bites man!
etc.
So much easier to give a shovel and a set of sample containers to SpaceX. Likely a lot quicker too, not to mention cheaper,
“Welcome to JPL Mr director. I don’t know if any one has mentioned it but we’ll need an additional half billion real soon”.
Gary H, we have to get those samples back before the Chinese. WE MUST NOT ALLOW… A MARS SAMPLE GAP! :)
And of course, officially, NASA must studiously ignore Starship at all costs. From page 95 of the just-released Moon-to-Mars Architecture Definition Document:
“Super Heavy Lift Systems:
Space Launch System flight
design available. Commercial
super heavy lift conceptual
designs in development”
In case anyone missed it
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20230002706/downloads/M2MADD_ESDMD-001(TP-20230002706).pdf
By the time they get something to land and collect the samples, Elon Musk will just load it up for NASA by hand.
“Starship, does not seem to have occurred to any of the these government wonks.”
I attended the MSR Conference 2018. A SpaceX engineer presented future opportunities and none of the MSR scientists/managers cared (I chatted with a bunch of them). It was all about NASA and ESA and their “own” launchers/landers. They didn’t even acknowledge the existence of anything outside. Guess nothing has changed.
Luckily, students (who showcased their rovers or instruments) and some independent suppliers/contractors were more open.
SpaceX needn’t do anything.
It’s NASA’s fail.
SpaceX needs only to do SpaceX; coming in under-budget and on time.
Drill holes make great markers. Drill nearby and return the duplicate samples earlier.
Could, but won’t happen. It doesn’t actually contribute very much to the Multi-planetary mission. Lot’s of time later for such make-work efforts.
Children playing in their sand boxes while the world turns..
SLS at least supports energetics and LH2/NTR. JPL is a cadre of watchmakers…used to folding things up a dozen different ways. They also ignored SD-HLLV and Red Dragon based concepts. HLLVs of any stripe makes JPL’s watchmakers obsolete…and I mean to make them pay for the Clipper double-cross.
Who wants to be the first geologists on Mars taking samples?
Space X will be the first ones there with people and thus the first to return significant samples from a wide variety of places. Not just a few grams of dust from one or two regions.
How many collage graduates would be willing to take a 5 year mission just to be the first to do something. Not counting the accumulated pay.
Well, like I said months ago, why not just ask the first SpaceX crew if they could bring the sample cartridges back in their carry-on luggage? Probably a faster solution, and several billion dollars cheaper.