The US Senate on Thursday cut funding for NASA’s ambitious mission to bring back soil and rock samples from the surface of Mars.
NASA had requested $949 million to support the Mars Sample Return Mission (MSR) for fiscal year 2024. In the space agency’s budget proposal released Thursday, the Senate offered just $300 million and threatened to take that amount away.
“The Commission has grave concerns about the technical challenges facing the MSR and the potential for further mission impacts on confirmed missions, even before the MSR completes its preliminary design review,” it said. The subcommittees of commercial, judicial, scientific and related agencies said in a report on the budget.
A commission report obtained by Als shows that Congress has spent $1.739 billion on the Mars sample return mission so far, but the public launch date (currently 2028) is expected to be pushed back. , notes that cost overruns threaten NASA’s other scientific missions.
The report further states that if NASA fails to provide Congress with assurances that the total cost of the Mars mission will not exceed $5.3 billion, the $300 million allocated for the Mars mission will be canceled. Most of the $300 million would then be reallocated to the Artemis program to land humans on the moon.
big budget
The Senate’s proposed budget for a Mars mission follows on from an Arus report three weeks ago that delved into the explosive costs. Inside NASA, a scenario is being discussed where the total cost of the mission could reach his $9 billion. The report also raised serious questions about whether NASA and the mission’s lead field center, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will be able to deliver the critical lander in time for its 2028 launch date.
A concern expressed by some scientists, including former NASA Science Director Thomas Zerbchen, is that the cost of returning Mars samples will swell and eat into funding from other science missions. And if the price is already approaching $10 billion now, it could get even more out of control.
“If the answer is that this is not the decade to do it, it breaks my heart because I have put so much effort into this,” Zurbchen told Ars. “But it’s better not to do it than to set the whole scientific community on fire. We have to have the courage to say no. That’s the only way we will have the right to say yes.” .”
The Senate has cited a budget of $5.3 billion, which was the mission’s estimate in an influential “decade” study of the planetary science community released last year. The study lists the return of Mars samples as a top priority, but adds a note about cost. If the total exceeds her $5.3 billion by more than 20%, NASA should not take that money away from other planetary programs. Instead, authorities should ask Congress to “increase the budget.”
The US Senate didn’t seem to like the sound. Now I’m telling NASA that if the mission can’t be completed for $5.3 billion, it should effectively be scrapped. no end. This is a significant increase in the stakes for NASA’s most high-profile science mission of the 2020s.
what happened now
This is not the final decision in the budgeting process. The US House of Representatives also sets budget priorities for next year, after which the Senate and Senate negotiate the final budget for next year. That will be the key point for this fall.
Another is the work of an “institutional review board” convened by NASA to evaluate the sample return mission and make recommendations for its success. The committee, led by Orlando Figueroa, retired deputy director for science and technology at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, will release its report in late August or September.
This independent review panel will likely provide guidance to NASA and Congress on whether the sample return mission is as affordable as designed. Or should it be radically changed, or should it be canceled altogether?
Congress has sent warning signs like this to NASA before. For example, in 2011, proposed by the US House of Representatives As part of the budgeting process, the James Webb Space Telescope has been discontinued due to ongoing delays and cost overruns. Ultimately, the Webb telescope got the funding it needed, and he eventually successfully launched at the end of 2021.
But Casey Dreyer, who heads advocacy and policy efforts for the Planetary Society, said there may be a notable difference between then and now. Much of the scientific community rallied around the Webb telescope a decade ago, he said. Mars missions seem to have a much shallower base of support, as they may provide data for a narrower range of scientific research.
Dryer said his organization continues to support Mars sample return missions due to prioritization by a decade of research. But he said the Planetary Society will closely monitor the independent review panel’s findings.
“We support a decade-long expedition and hope to see a Mars sample return, but we need to know what happens with this independent expedition,” he said. “Maybe this is the biggest shock NASA needs to get things under control.”
