Report supports Mars sample return efforts
Posted: Fri, Sep 28, 2012, 7:29 AM ET (1129 GMT)
An independent panel established by NASA to study future directions for the agency's Mars exploration program concludes that the program should retain a long-term goal of returning Martian samples to the Earth. The Mars Program Planning Group (MPPG), in a summary report issued this week, provided NASA with several options for carrying out a sample return mission, including scenarios where human missions could play a role, such as by retrieving samples returned by such missions in cislunar space. Regarding near-term mission options, the MPPG report found that even by scaling back proposed concepts for rovers to collect samples, none could fit into the budget in time for a 2018 launch; barring an increase in money, NASA would either fly an orbiter mission in 2018 that could, in part, serve as a telecommunications relay for future missions, or push back the rover mission to 2020 or later. A final decision on at least the near-term Mars plans isn't expected by NASA before the release of its fiscal year 2014 budget proposal early next year.
An independent panel established by NASA to study future directions for the agency's Mars exploration program concludes that the program should retain a long-term goal of returning Martian samples to the Earth. The Mars Program Planning Group (MPPG), in a summary report issued this week, provided NASA with several options for carrying out a sample return mission, including scenarios where human missions could play a role, such as by retrieving samples returned by such missions in cislunar space. Regarding near-term mission options, the MPPG report found that even by scaling back proposed concepts for rovers to collect samples, none could fit into the budget in time for a 2018 launch; barring an increase in money, NASA would either fly an orbiter mission in 2018 that could, in part, serve as a telecommunications relay for future missions, or push back the rover mission to 2020 or later. A final decision on at least the near-term Mars plans isn't expected by NASA before the release of its fiscal year 2014 budget proposal early next year.
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