Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

NASA’s robotic Holy Grail mission, a Mars sample return effort to bring back to Earth Martian collectibles.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA is seemingly caught between a Mars rock and a hard place. Deemed the Holy Grail of Mars science for decades, the thought of robotically rounding up prized samples of the Red Planet and hurling them to Earth is in a holding pattern.

Last September, an independent review board (IRB) released its findings after taking a diligent and detailed look at the flagship Mars sample return (MSR) project. The IRB was established by NASA to judge the technical requirements, cost and calendar plans of the task.

It was a thorough sanity check on how things are going.

And things are not going well.

For more information, go to my new Scientific American story – “NASA’s Troubled Mars Sample Mission Has Scientists Seeing Red – NASA’s Mars Sample Return program is the agency’s highest priority in planetary science, but projected multibillion-dollar overruns have some calling the plan a “dumpster fire”” – at:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasas-troubled-mars-sample-mission-has-scientists-seeing-red/