NASA Considers Private Partnerships to Return Mars Samples

NASA announced on Tuesday that it might partner with SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, and Blue Origin, led by Jeff Bezos, to help bring Martian rock samples back to Earth.

Faced with soaring costs and repeated delays, NASA is reconsidering its mission strategy. Two options are currently under review, one of which partially involves private companies.

Meanwhile, China plans to launch a similar mission in 2028. If successful, it would become the first country to achieve this milestone.

A round-trip mission to Mars is highly complex and takes several years. NASA initially aimed to return the samples by 2030, but internal audits last year deemed this timeline unrealistic, pushing the mission’s completion to 2040.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson revealed on Tuesday that the revised timeline for the mission now spans from 2035 to 2039, depending on the chosen approach. One option involves private sector assistance during the first phase, while the other relies on NASA’s existing systems.

These alternatives aim to cut costs. Experts estimated the initial mission cost at $11 billion in 2024, nearly double the original budget. The new proposals are expected to lower costs to between $5.8 billion and $7.7 billion.