Lockheed Martin Wants To Bring Mars Rover's Samples To Earth If Nasa Can't

Lockheed Martin has announced nan specifications of a connection to return complete NASA's Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, tasked pinch retrieving nan samples that nan Perseverance rover connected nan reddish satellite has already collected. These samples person awesome technological value, including nan anticipation of nan grounds of life. While primitively conceived arsenic an in-house job, NASA has since realized that its type of nan scheme would costs astatine slightest $7 billion, a fig sometimes known by its technological name, "too much." That caused nan abstraction agency to solicit proposals for a cheaper solution backmost successful 2024, including from Lockheed.

In a press release, nan venerable aerospace institution has declared that it tin get a mates of Mars rocks backmost to our satellite for a "firm-fixed price" of little than $3 billion. It's going to execute that smaller costs by making everything, well, smaller. The lander (which sets down connected Mars), ascent conveyance (which launches backmost retired to abstraction from nan surface), and Earth introduction strategy (which gets done Earth ambiance connected nan voyage home) will each beryllium downsized.

Beyond nan magnitude itself, nan truth that nan value is fixed ought to beryllium appealing. NASA, bless its heart, has a wont of rocketing wildly complete budget. Former NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said successful 2024 that nan costs of MSR mightiness person swelled arsenic precocious arsenic $11 billion, a fig sometimes known by its technological name, "way excessively much." If Lockheed commits to nan $3 cardinal value tag, that would beryllium a invited change. Assuming, of course, that it isn't forced to trim corners to do it.

Lockheed Martin does person immoderate Martian experience. As it is happy to constituent retired successful its proposal, nan institution participated successful each azygous ngo to Mars successful NASA's history, including designing and building half of each nan spacecraft involved. It besides operates each 3 of NASA's orbital trade astir nan reddish planet. Beyond Mars (how galore companies tin opportunity "beyond Mars"?), Lockheed built each 3 return sample vehicles that NASA has utilized successful different missions, including to and from an asteroid successful nan OSIRIS-REx mission.

This is only a connection for now. NASA needs to determine whether aliases not to take it, but nan abstraction agency is in a weird spot correct now, pinch nan Trump management handing successful its ain proposal: Massive fund cuts crossed nan board. Not intolerable to ideate that nan MSR ngo will conscionable beryllium scrapped altogether, leaving Perseverance's samples to cod reddish particulate pinch nary point.

Or will they? China wants to motorboat to motorboat a sample return ngo of its ain successful 2028, and per Space News, it wants to induce different countries on for nan ride. If NASA's samples are still sitting there, there's nary existent logic nan Chinese, possibly pinch a small Russian support, couldn't snatch them for themselves.