NASA is advancing its Mars Sample Return Program by initiating ten studies aimed at identifying more affordable and faster methods to bring samples from Mars back to Earth. To support this effort, NASA will award firm-fixed-price contracts worth up to $1.5 million each to seven industry proposers for conducting 90-day studies.
In addition to industry proposals, studies will be produced by NASA centers, CalTech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Johns Hopkins’ Applied Physics Laboratory. Once these studies are completed, NASA will evaluate them to consider potential alterations or enhancements to the Mars Sample Return architecture.
“Mars Sample Return will be one of the most complex missions NASA has undertaken, and it is critical that we carry it out more quickly, with less risk, and at a lower cost,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “I’m excited to see the vision that these companies, centers, and partners present as we look for fresh, exciting, and innovative ideas to uncover great cosmic secrets from the Red Planet.”
Over the past 25 years, NASA has systematically explored Mars to understand its early history and its implications for the formation and evolution of habitable worlds, including Earth. Mars Sample Return has been a long-term goal of international planetary exploration for the past two decades. Since landing on Mars in 2021, NASA’s Perseverance rover has been collecting samples for future return to Earth.
The selected companies and their proposals are:
Lockheed Martin in Littleton, Colorado: “Lockheed Martin Rapid Mission Design Studies for Mars Sample Return”
SpaceX in Hawthorne, California: “Enabling Mars Sample Return With Starship”
Aerojet Rocketdyne in Huntsville, Alabama: “A High-Performance Liquid Mars Ascent Vehicle, Using Highly Reliable and Mature Propulsion Technologies, to Improve Program Affordability and Schedule”
Blue Origin in Monrovia, California: “Leveraging Artemis for Mars Sample Return”
Quantum Space in Rockville, Maryland: “Quantum Anchor Leg Mars Sample Return Study”
Northrop Grumman in Elkton, Maryland: “High TRL MAV Propulsion Trades and Concept Design for MSR Rapid Mission Design”
Whittinghill Aerospace in Camarillo, California: “A Rapid Design Study for the MSR Single Stage Mars Ascent Vehicle”
NASA’s Mars Sample Return program is a strategic partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA). Returning scientifically selected samples to Earth for study using the world’s most sophisticated instruments could revolutionize our understanding of Mars and fulfill one of the highest priority solar system exploration goals identified by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine.–News Desk