PASADENA, Calif. NASAs plans to return samples of soil and rock from Mars could cost at least $1.5 billion and dominate the agencys agenda for the Red Planet for nearly a decade, virtually precluding all other martian exploratory missions during that time, a top Mars scientist said.
Daniel McCleese, chief scientist in the Mars exploration directorate at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), said sample returns size, cost and complexity dictate that approach.
"It would mean that almost everything else, when it comes to sample return, will be put on the back burner," McCleese said, in comments made to reporters at a recent astrobiology meeting at NASAs Ames Research Center.
If the sample return program were to begin in 2005, perhaps with a technology demonstration mission but no actual return of rocks and soil to Earth, it might not conclude until 2013, McCleese said.
And a recent reassessment of the sample return program pegs its price at least $1.5 billion. Although sample return, as currently envisioned, would require the use of at least three separate robotic spacecraft, that price tag puts the endeavor firmly in the ranks of single spacecraft like Cassini and Galileo when it comes to cost.
Scott Hubbard, NASAs newly appointed Mars Program Office, said he would like the agency to take a "long, hard look" at sample return as part of the agencys ongoing overhaul of its campaign to explore the Red Planet. The goal would be to streamline the process.
"I want to take a look at the Mars sample return project and how that element fits into a long-term program and see if there is some way to do this that is less complex and less of such a huge requirement of resources over a short period of time," Hubbard said.
The latest plan to return soil and rock from Mars to Earth calls for two landers to use rovers or robotic arms to collect samples and deliver them to a small rocket. The rocket would then blast off from Mars and place the capsules in martian orbit, where a French-supplied orbiter would scoop them up and return them to Earth.
NASA may seek to return the samples directly to Earth from Mars, skipping altogether the risky orbital rendezvous and presumably cutting French participation out of the equation.
Hubbard said he would press to have all options considered for sample return.
"I do feel strongly that we take a fresh look to see if weve missed anything," Hubbard said.
Indeed, NASAs entire fleet of landers, orbiters, rovers and other craft designed to explore Mars may experience some significant shakeout in the near term. Its panoply of spacecraft may shrink to several basic models, among them "scouts" -- small, inexpensive landers.
"A focused program is more likely to succeed than a broad-brush one," McCleese said.
NASA will take another six months to announce what changes it will make to its Mars program. Already it has canceled plans to send a lander to Mars next year.
It has also reshuffled the way it manages its Mars program, creating Hubbards position. At JPL, officials announced Friday that Firouz Naderi the former head of the labs origins program would manage its newly reconstituted Mars program office.
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