NASA's wants new ideas for its troubled Mars Sample Return mission

[Admin]

NASA's Mars Sample Return mission has faced quite a few hurdles, and the agency has selected ten studies to try and find more affordable and quicker means of going about the project.

NASA's wants new ideas for its troubled Mars Sample Return mission : Read more

 

[solipsist]

If the Chang'e 6 mission sticks its upcoming landing with far-side lunar samples, extending the Chinese space program's impressive string of successful robotic missions, the best bet may be to subcontract MSR to them. They already have their own plan to retrieve Mars samples in the early 2030s.

Unfortunately, a joint Sino-American mission is likely a political impossibility, at least until we finish fighting a war with them over Taiwan. So we really need to get on the stick, or China might actually beat us to the scoop! So to speak...

 

[Unclear Engineer]

I don't think it is the technology so much as the cost that has NASA stumped.

China has the ability to provide funding in a much steadier and consistent manner than the U.S. political system allows.

 

[kevincap44]

Just wait and let the first Mars human missions retrieve them. It will allow them to do research without having to gather the samples.