Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Mars Sample Return program artwork depicts rocketing collected Red Planet specimens for eventual return to Earth.
Image credit: NASA

Another attempt by NASA is being kick-started to return Mars samples to Earth.

The initiative to determine a NASA strategy for lobbing back to Earth Mars collectibles is called the Perseverance Sample Retrieval Architecture or PSRA.

The purpose of PSRA is to develop impartial recommendations for retrieving the Martian samples collected by Perseverance and delivering them to Earth. This assessment is to cover proposed mission requirements; review prior lessons learned; and evaluate current capabilities and acquisition options.

There will be a PSRA strategy team kickoff in January 2027 with a final report due in winter 2027-2028.

The new PSRA activity was detailed November 9 by Tiffany Morgan, director of the NASA Mars Exploration Program (MEP), during the virtual meeting of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG)

Select specimens

NASA’s Perseverance rover has been busy at work collecting Mars samples at Jezero Crater. A projected Mars Sample Return program would bring those specimens to Earth for state-of-the-art analysis.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Meanwhile, NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover continues to prowl around within Jezero Crater following its touchdown in February 2021. That car-sized robot has been picking up select specimens from across the area, gingerly deploying those sealed pick-me-ups on the Red Planet’s surface, as well as stuffing them inside itself.

Those collectibles may well hold signs of past life on that enigmatic, dusty and foreboding world.

NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have for years been intently plotting out plans to send future spacecraft to Mars and haul those Perseverance-plucked bits, pieces, and sniffs of atmosphere to Earth for rigorous inspection here on Earth by state-of-the-art equipment.

Sticker shock

But over the years, multiple reviews of the Mars Sample Return (MSR) project by independent groups have reported sticker shock findings. A last estimate was about $11 billion, with samples being returned to Earth in 2040, deemed by NASA itself as too costly and not being accomplished within an acceptable time frame.

Mars sample return to Earth – a major undertaking by NASA, the European Space Agency.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Yet another appraisal group ended up finding it feasible to return Mars samples as early as 2035 for a cost of some $8 billion.

China’s roadmap for a Mars Sample Return mission to be launched in 2028.
Image credit: The University of Hong Kong/Zengqian Hou, et al.

China’s program

Looming in the background is that China is making progress on its Tianwen-3 Mars Sample Return mission. According to the China National Space Administration, the Tianwen-3 probe will have a lander, an ascender, a service capsule, an orbiter, and an Earth reentry module.

Tianwen-3 appears on track getting the trek underway around 2028 on two Long March-5 heavy-lift carrier rockets from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in China’s southernmost island province of Hainan.

China’s Tianwen-3 mission is dedicated to bring back to Earth roughly 500 grams of Red Planet collectibles in 2031.