12 mo. ago • 100%

Mars Sample Return Scientifically Critical, But Eye-Poppingly Expensive

spacepolicyonline.com Mars Sample Return Scientifically Critical, But Eye-Poppingly Expensive

Posted: September 21, 2023 8:17 pm ET | Last Updated: September 21, 2023 8:17 pm ET | A second Independent Review Board on the NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return mission concludes that the mission cannot be completed on the cost and schedule NASA advertises. The current design would cost $8-9.6 billion and...

8 comments

As Douglas Adams put it: most people where only concerned with the movement of small green pieces of paper. The amount of small green pieces of printable paper is completely and utterly irrelevant in comparison to the next milestone mankind can achieve and must achieve to survive. (My personal, admittedly strong, opinion of course)

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- It would be cool if NASA's budget was raised, but in the meantime we have to deal with the reality that a flagship mission going way over budget takes money away from other programs.
  
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I'm really conflicted on this one. Behind schedule and $10 billion will inevitably turn into even more behind schedule and even more money. The opportunity cost of the money is a big part of that.

I'm also still holding out hope that SpaceX will get Starship to Mars and back some time in the 2030s, but maybe that's too naïve or optimistic of me.

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let's admit. China will return samples first. Not in same shiny way as samples return, but still first.

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Didn't the latest stuff sent up there have the ability to analyze samples on the spot? Why do they want to send samples back?

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- I suspect a full-scale lab is a little more capable than a pocket lab bolted on a rover
  
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  I think a real key will be getting geologists on the ground there. The productivity comparison is something crazy, like, an astronaut could do a few years of rover work in a week.
  
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