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“We want to get every new and fresh idea we can,” he told a news conference.
NASA’s Perseverance rover has already collected 24 core samples in test tubes since its 2021 landing in Jezero Crater on Mars, an ancient river delta. The target is more than 30 samples to search for possible signs of ancient Martian life.
The space agency wants to deliver at least some of the collected samples to Earth sometime in the 1930s for no more than $7 billion ($10.91 billion). This would require a spacecraft to go to Mars to pick up the tubes and take off from the planet. After that, he has to rendezvous with another spaceship that will bring the samples to Earth.
NASA’s science mission manager, Nicky Fox, declined to speculate at the press conference on when the samples might arrive on Earth, given the new program and timeline, or even how many samples might be returned. That information will be included in all proposals, she said.
“We’ve never launched from another planet, and that actually makes the Mars sample return such a challenging and interesting mission,” Fox said.
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