Nelson To Make Call On Mars Sample Return Plan Before Leaving Office

Credit: Kim Shiflett/NASA

CAPE CANAVERAL—Outgoing NASA Administrator Bill Nelson plans to announce in early January a revised plan for returning to Earth a cache of samples collected by the Mars Perseverance rover.

Nelson, who was appointed by President Joe Biden to head NASA in 2021, will be leaving the agency on Jan. 20, when President-elect Donald Trump assumes office. Trump has nominated private astronaut and tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman to become the next administrator.

With its baseline, multi-spacecraft Mars Sample Return (MSR) plan exceeding budget and schedule requirements, NASA commissioned 11 studies for alternative plans that would cost less or return the samples back to Earth before 2040.

“We’ll give you the results probably the first week in January,” Nelson told a group of reporters at Kennedy Space Center on Dec. 18. “By involving industry, NASA centers and combining with others, they’re coming out with [something] much more practical where they can speed up the time and considerably lower the cost.”

Returning a cache of scientifically selected rock, regolith and atmospheric samples from Mars could reveal whether life ever existed on another planet besides Earth, as well as provide insights into the evolution of the Solar System. MSR has consistently been the top goal of the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, whose decadal surveys identify the most important scientific questions in planetary science and other disciplines.

Nelson decided to look for options for the agency’s flagship MSR campaign after a pair of independent studies determined the program would cost up to USD 11 billion and likely take seven years longer than planned.