NASA is preparing to make a big announcement today that could reveal the future of America’s next mission to Mars.
The Mars Return Sample (MRS) aims to bring Martian soil back to Earth, but the progress of the mission has been uncertain since a damning report last year criticised the ‘unrealistic budget’.
However, the announcement today has sparked hopes that NASA might reveal the timeline and budget for the next stage of this challenging scientific mission.
Excitingly, NASA says that the samples could finally help to answer one of the biggest remaining questions in space exploration – whether or not there is life beyond Earth.
NASA said: ‘The return of the samples will also help NASA’s search for signs of ancient life.’
Today NASA will make a big announcement on the future of the Mars Sample Return mission. This mission aimed to use a number of vehicles (pictured) to bring back material from Mars
At 18:00 BST (13:00 EDT), the American space agency will host a media teleconference on the MRS mission.
You can follow MailOnline’s coverage for all the updates as they happen, or watch the announcement live on NASA TV Live.
The MRS mission began in February 2021 when NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on the Martian surface.
Since then, Perseverance has travelled alongside the Ingenuity Mars helicopter around the Jezero Crater, collecting rock samples.
The original plan was that NASA would send a secondary lander to collect the samples from Ingenuity and bring these back to Earth for analysis.
These samples are believed to be of extremely high scientific value and could help scientists uncover what Mars’ weather and climate would have been like in the distant past.
NASA said: ‘NASA’s Perseverance rover is collecting compelling science samples that will help scientists understand the geological history of Mars, the evolution of its climate, and prepare for future human explorers.
The Mars Sample Return mission began in 2021 when the Perseverance rover (pictured) landed on the Martian surface to collect rock samples
Rock samples could help scientists understand the geological history of Mars (pictured) and even answer whether the planet was once home to ancient life
It said: The return of the sample will also help NASA’s search for signs of ancient life.’
As of now, Perseverance has collected 24 samples of the planet’s surface including 21 rock cores, two samples of regolith, and one atmospheric sample.
Most of these samples are held on Perseverance including those believed to be of the highest value, but a number of other samples have also been cached nearby.
However, the mission has been on shaky ground since last year after it was blasted by a damning independent report.
This criticised the MSR for having an ‘unrealistic budget and schedule expectations from the beginning’.
The report’s authors also wrote that the mission ‘is not arranged to be led effectively’.
This was almost immediately followed by significant budget cuts for NASA to be taken out of the MSR mission.
The Senate and House of Representatives appropriations committee approved a new budget that included a cut of $454,080,000 (£364,190,323) for the mission.
NASA’s original timeline suggested that an orbital craft would be launched as early as 2027, followed by a lander in 2028.
On this timeline, the samples would come back to Earth by 2033 but it is not yet known how this has been affected by the reduced budget.
Today, NASA administrator Bill Nelson and Nicky Fox, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, will give the first update on the project’s status.
Perseverance has now collected 24 samples (pictured) from various points in the Jezero Crater
The mission to develop a return vehicle (pictured during testing) was criticised for being over budget and poorly organised, today’s update could reveal the future of the mission
It is hoped that their announcement will lay out a plan for meeting the existing timeline, although no details have yet been released.
At the time of the report’s publication, NASA said that it would make a recommendation for ‘a path forward for Mars Sample Return within a balanced overall science program.’
The space agency also said that it would delay confirming the mission’s final budget and schedule until the review had been completed.
As NASA is now calling a conference to discuss the mission it is possible that we might see the first concrete details of the next mission to Mars.
If so, this would mark a significant step forward for the agency’s ambitions for the planet.
