Nasa leaves behind samples that may prove life on Mars

NASA has admitted it cannot afford to bring back Mars samples which could prove life once existed on the planet.

Since 2022, Nasa’s Perseverance Rover has been drilling into the Martian surface, collecting rock and dust, some of which has been left in capsules on the red surface. The samples could hold traces of ancient anti-microbial species that would prove that life has evolved somewhere other than on Earth.

The US space agency had originally planned to send a separate rover or helicopter to collect the sample tubes, which would then be fired up to an orbiting spacecraft, and brought back to Earth by 2040. But this week, Nasa said it could no longer afford the $11 billion (£8.9 billion) return mission and called for new ideas on how to get the samples back more cheaply in the 2030s.

“Mars Sample Return will be one of the most complex missions Nasa has ever undertaken,” said Bill Nelson, the Nasa administrator. “The bottom line is an $11 billion budget is too expensive, and a 2040 return date is too far away.

“Safely landing and collecting the samples, launching a rocket with the samples off another planet – which has never been done before – and safely transporting the samples more than 33 million miles back to Earth is no small task. We need to look outside the box to find a way that is affordable and returns samples in a reasonable timeframe.”

Nasa said it was critical to get the samples back quicker because humans may soon be travelling to Mars, so knowing more about the surface and climate is vital to keeping astronauts safe. The Perseverance rover has been drilling down at the Jezero Crater, the site of an ancient lake, which experts believe holds the best chance of finding evidence of fossil life.

It was originally planned that Perseverance would leave the samples on the surface for a European Space Agency Sample Fetch Rover to collect and take to the Mars Ascent Vehicle, from where they would be fired up into space. The mission has run into funding problems and in 2022, the British-built Sample Fetch Rover was scrapped despite already costing the UK £22.7 million.

Engineers at Airbus in Stevenage had spent four years designing the rover when Nasa announced that Perseverance would deliver the samples to the ascent vehicle itself. If the rover failed, two new helicopters would be sent to collect backup samples left on the surface, Nasa said at the time. But now the revised plan is also in doubt.

Nasa said the mission remained a “top priority” but several billion dollars will need to be shaved off the cost.