NASA overhauls plan to bring samples from Mars back to Earth

NASA on Tuesday announced an overhaul to its plan to collect samples from Mars and return them to Earth.

NASA on Tuesday announced an overhaul to its plan to collect samples from Mars and return them to Earth.

Agency officials said they have decided to scrap parts of their original plan to cut down on the mission’s technical difficulty and cost and to shorten the timeline for when the samples could be brought back.

Through its Mars Sample Return Program, NASA has for more than two decades been inching toward the goal of retrieving samples of Martian soil that NASA’s Perseverance rover has been collecting since 2021. To do that, the agency had been working to develop multiple new spacecraft to relay the samples off the Martian surface and fly them back to Earth.

NASA said in its announcement it is changing the plan for the spacecraft that will land on Mars to retrieve the samples and exploring two new, different options.

One of the options is to attempt a style of landing similar to what NASA successfully executed with the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers. As each rover made its descent, rockets were fired to slow the spacecraft, and an intricate sky crane then lowered them to the Martian surface.

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/nasa-overhauls-mars-sample-return-plan-rcna186400

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