Latest news with #MarsSampleReturn
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Lockheed Martin Wants To Bring Mars Rover's Samples To Earth If NASA Can't
Lockheed Martin has announced the details of a proposal to take over NASA's Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, tasked with retrieving the samples that the Perseverance rover on the red planet has already collected. These samples have great scientific value, including the possibility of the evidence of life. While originally conceived as an in-house job, NASA has since realized that its version of the plan would cost at least $7 billion, a figure sometimes known by its scientific name, "too much." That caused the space agency to solicit proposals for a cheaper solution back in 2024, including from Lockheed. In a press release, the venerable aerospace company has declared that it can get a couple of Mars rocks back to our planet for a "firm-fixed price" of less than $3 billion. It's going to accomplish that smaller cost by making everything, well, smaller. The lander (which sets down on Mars), ascent vehicle (which launches back out to space from the surface), and Earth entry system (which gets through Earth atmosphere on the voyage home) will all be downsized. Beyond the amount itself, the fact that the price is fixed ought to be appealing. NASA, bless its heart, has a habit of rocketing wildly over budget. Former NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in 2024 that the cost of MSR might have swelled as high as $11 billion, a figure sometimes known by its scientific name, "way too much." If Lockheed commits to the $3 billion price tag, that would be a welcome change. Assuming, of course, that it isn't forced to cut corners to do it. Read more: These Are Your Favorite Factory Exhaust Designs To Mars And Back Again Lockheed Martin does have some Martian experience. As it is happy to point out in its proposal, the company participated in every single mission to Mars in NASA's history, including designing and building half of all the spacecraft involved. It also operates all three of NASA's orbital craft around the red planet. Beyond Mars (how many companies can say "beyond Mars"?), Lockheed built all three return sample vehicles that NASA has used in other missions, including to and from an asteroid in the OSIRIS-REx mission. This is only a proposal for now. NASA needs to decide whether or not to choose it, but the space agency is in a weird place right now, with the Trump administration handing in its own proposal: Massive budget cuts across the board. Not impossible to imagine that the MSR mission will just be scrapped altogether, leaving Perseverance's samples to collect red dust with no point. Or will they? China wants to launch to launch a sample return mission of its own in 2028, and per Space News, it wants to invite other countries along for the ride. If NASA's samples are still sitting there, there's no real reason the Chinese, maybe with a little Russian support, couldn't snatch them for themselves. Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox... Read the original article on Jalopnik.
Daily Mirror
22-07-2025
- Science
- Daily Mirror
Next pandemic 'worse than Covid' will arrive within years - and it will come from MARS
Astrobiologist Barry DiGregorio fears astronauts on Mars could die "live on air" after being exposed to deadly alien pathogens as NASA aims to send people to the Red Planet in the 2030s Mars samples returned to Earth by NASA could spark a pandemic worse than Covid-19 in as little as 10 years, a scientist has warned. Astrobiologist Barry DiGregorio, 71, even fears astronauts on Mars will die "live on air" over deadly alien pathogens. NASA says on its website it hopes to send humans to the Red Planet in the 2030s. It was planning to return samples before then through its Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, but that was cancelled by Donald Trump's recent cuts. Instead NASA says it expects to return samples to Earth through lower-cost missions, without yet confirming how. And DiGregorio, an honorary research fellow at Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology, fears samples returned will be riddled with disease. He also claims aliens were already found by the Viking Mars lander mission in 1976. The author of Discovery on Vera Rubin Ridge, Trace Fossils on Mars said: "I believe samples from Mars could lead to a pandemic because Gilbert Levin discovered life on Mars during the Viking missions. The environmental conditions of Mars are so vastly different than here on Earth that any life that adapted to those conditions could be completely different to anything that we understand. "Levin felt the same way. He was always opposed to bringing samples home before we studied what the life that he found on Mars is. Lately they've been finding examples of extremophiles in areas where they put spacecraft before they're sent to the planets, and they've discovered a whole new line of extremophiles here on Earth that they never knew existed before. Therefore we have been sending all our rovers and landers to Mars without a complete sterilisation. "We were sending to Mars from Earth the type of extremophiles that can survive in very hardy places. So we're not only contaminating Mars, but with the Mars sample return situation, we could be doing the exact same thing by bringing stuff back from Mars." He added: "It is possible that NASA hasn't really thought through the idea that these astronauts, presumably, will be televised. Something really bad could go wrong live on air. I don't think there's any question about it. If one astronaut steps out to plant the flag on Mars and goes back in for the night to catch some rest, and in the morning comes down with symptoms of some new disease, what are you going to do? "They have to wait a year or more to come back to Earth and there's no rescue mission that can be sent there. So the smart thing to do is to send more life detection rovers. You want astronauts to be safe if they go exploring Mars. You don't want to send them to become human petri dishes." Levin made the explosive claim he'd discovered microbial alien life on Mars during the 1976 missions. He had been contracted to run tests on Martian soil but his theory was dismissed by NASA. He spent the rest of his life adamant he was the first man to discover aliens, before he died at the age of 97 in 2021. After NASA had landed two Viking landers on Mars, Levin claimed he'd found the presence of radioactive gas that showed signs of alien life. But NASA determined this was not the case in a separate experiment from Viking. Recently, former NASA Planetary Protection Officer, Catharine Conley, claims she was fired because she said plans to return Mars samples to Earth were not safe. She told The Sun: "The Mars 2020 rover was cleaned in a way that was not compatible with prior levels of cleanliness, in particular regarding the amount of contamination that was getting introduced into the samples that were being collected for return. "I pointed out that having a 0.1 per cent chance of contaminating any individual sample, when you have 40 samples in total, comes out to a 4 per cent chance of having Earth contamination in the samples you're looking at. That makes it fairly difficult to be confident that you can distinguish between Earth life and Mars life. "That was not something that the people at the headquarters management wanted to hear and they took the steps that they thought were appropriate." DiGregorio added: "We need life detection to find current life that exists there now. Tests like those that Gilbert Levin used to detect metabolism on Mars, a very accurate method for detecting microorganisms. There have been many opportunities to go back to check this out for astronaut safety." He added: "Microbes attach themselves to dust particles. Mars is a very dry and dusty place and one of the problems the Apollo missions had was when the astronauts returned from their EVAs, they brought lots and lots of dust on their suits inside the compartment with them. "When they took them off, the dust was getting everywhere. In fact they could smell it. It smelled like burnt gunpowder, they said. "If you remember the Apollo mission planetary protection protocols, we weren't really sure if there were microbes on the Moon, and to prevent cross contamination, the astronauts had to wear isolation gowns, put them on inside the capsule as it was bobbing up and down in the ocean and a recovery crew came to pick them and take them up in a helicopter. "It took them to the aircraft carrier where a makeshift trailer designed to be an isolation booth housed the astronauts for a period of a couple weeks while scientists back on Earth were looking for samples in the lunar dust that might have been contaminated. "The thing that was really odd was as soon as they opened the capsule door to the sea, lunar dust particles that were in the capsule could have been swept out and into the ocean. So if there was any kind of extremophile microorganisms on the Moon that could survive in the Earth Sea, we just contaminated the planet right then and there. We're basically gambling with whatever is out there."
Yahoo
13-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
This company could save NASA's doomed Martian Sample Return mission
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, BGR may receive an affiliate commission. Lockheed Martin is trying to position itself as a savior for many NASA missions currently facing the chopping block at the hands of the Trump administration. The administration has already detailed massive budget cuts to NASA, which could include a complete shutdown of the Mars Sample Return mission, which Perseverance has been working on for the past several years. However, Lockheed Martin — yes, the same company known for its extensive role in America's defense system — has come up with a fixed budget plan to save the Sample Return mission and bring back the collections Perseverance has already made. Today's Top Deals XGIMI Prime Day deals feature the new MoGo 4 and up to 42% off smart projectors Best deals: Tech, laptops, TVs, and more sales Best Ring Video Doorbell deals Over the years, NASA has struggled to bring its plans for Mars exploration to life. While the Mars Sample Return mission was a great idea, its actual execution has been less than smooth, with the budget often skyrocketing above the original numbers NASA provided years ago when it started operating on the mission. The numbers have changed so much, in fact, that even before the Trump administration's shocking budget cuts, NASA was already looking at possibly canceling the MSR or finding cheaper alternatives. Thankfully, those cuts seem to have been relinquished for now, but it doesn't mean NASA is out of the fire just yet. But Lockheed Martin's plan could make that unnecessary. According to a detailed post and video shared to Lockheed Martin's website, the company has come up with at least one way it could utilize existing services and vehicles to complete NASA's expensive Mars Sample Return mission. Further, the company says it would be able to pull it off for $3 billion, less than half NASA's current $7 billion projection. If true, it could give NASA the extra hand that it needs to get the Mars Sample Return mission back on track. While Trump and others have put a renewed focus on actually getting humans to Mars, being able to understand the Red Planet better will be key to surviving there and creating a human colony that can thrive. That's why these samples are so important. They could finally help us answer vital questions about the history of water on Mars, as well as determine the best places to land and colonize the planet. Of course, NASA and the U.S. government have to say yes to all of that first. But it's at least a nice plan that the bigwigs out there can mull over in the meantime. And, with a little luck, we could see the plans to can the Mars Sample Return turned on their head. And that would be a great thing to see. More Top Deals Memorial Day security camera deals: Reolink's unbeatable sale has prices from $29.98 See the
Time of India
10-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Trump is downsizing NASA and handing over the space race to China
A staggering 2,145 senior NASA employees - about 11% of the agency's total workforce - are set to leave as part of a sweeping downsizing effort, signaling a period of deep uncertainty for the US space program. This unprecedented exodus comes as China 's space sector surges, now employing over 170,000 people- a workforce nearly ten times larger than NASA's - highlighting the stark divergence between the two nations' approaches to space exploration NASA: Shrinking workforce, budget woes, and mission risks NASA's workforce, currently around 18,000 employees, is bracing for a significant loss of expertise. The departing staff are primarily in GS-13 to GS-15 roles, representing senior leadership and technical positions essential to the agency's most complex missions. Notably, 1,818 of those leaving work directly in science and human spaceflight, with hundreds more in mission support roles such as IT, facilities, and finance. Critical centers like the Kennedy and Johnson Space Centers are among the hardest hit, with hundreds of staff departing from each. The cuts are being driven by the Trump administration's proposed $6 billion reduction to NASA's 2025 budget, which threatens to cancel dozens of science programs and jeopardize major projects, including the Gateway lunar orbit station. The agency is offering early retirement, buyouts, and deferred resignations to minimize involuntary layoffs, but the scale of the departures has already raised alarms about a 'brain drain' that could disrupt ongoing and future missions. Compounding the crisis is the absence of a confirmed NASA administrator, following the abrupt withdrawal of nominee Jared Isaacman. This leadership gap further complicates strategic planning at a time when the agency is under intense pressure to do more with less. Program impact: Missions at risk The staff exodus and budget squeeze threaten to undermine NASA's most ambitious projects: Live Events Artemis II Program (returning Americans to the Moon) scheduled for 2026 and Mars Sample Return missions are at risk due to the loss of experienced engineers and managers. Dozens of science programs face cancellation, and the agency's ability to maintain its role in international collaborations is in jeopardy. China: Expanding workforce, growing budget, and unbroken momentum While NASA contracts, China's space program is rapidly expanding. China's space program, coordinated by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and executed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), is supported by a workforce exceeding 170,000 employees across its various agencies and state-owned enterprises. This vast pool of engineers, scientists, and support staff enables China to rapidly scale up its ambitions and sustain a high tempo of missions. China's recent track record is marked by a string of high-profile successes: Tianwen-2 asteroid sample return mission launched in 2025, aiming to bring back pristine samples from a near-Earth asteroid. Chang'e-6 lunar mission set to return samples from the Moon's far side. Tiangong space station fully operational, supporting long-duration human missions and international science collaborations. Multiple new partnerships, including joint missions with Europe and invitations to over 30 countries to join its lunar research initiatives. China's centralized approach enables rapid decision-making, efficient resource allocation, and consistent progress on ambitious goals—contrasting sharply with NASA's current budget and staffing turmoil. Will China rocket over NASA sooner than anticipated? The simultaneous downscaling of NASA's workforce and budget, combined with leadership instability, is eroding America's traditional dominance in space. The loss of over 2,000 senior staff threatens to disrupt critical missions and diminish the agency's capacity for innovation at a time when global competition is intensifying. In contrast, China is capitalizing on this moment, expanding its workforce, increasing its budget, and executing complex missions with growing international participation. If current trends continue, China is poised to overtake the U.S. in several key areas of space exploration, fundamentally reshaping the global balance of power in the final frontier. Economic Times WhatsApp channel )
Globe and Mail
04-07-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Lockheed Martin Expands Mars Ambitions With Next-Gen Mission Design
Lockheed Martin Corporation ( LMT ), widely recognized for its advanced defense systems, also holds a strong position in the space industry. Its space business segment, which plays a key role in areas such as satellite technology, missile warning systems and deep space exploration, has already been involved deeply in Earth-to-Mars missions of NASA. Impressively, Lockheed Martin built NASA's first Mars lander and has been a part of every NASA Mars mission since. Now, Lockheed Martin is aiming even higher with a new streamlined approach to NASA's Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, which could set a new standard for future planetary missions. This revolutionary mission aims to collect soil samples from Mars and bring them back to Earth in a single mission. LMT's updated plan for the MSR mission introduces a faster and more affordable approach by using a smaller Mars lander with a smaller Mars Ascent Vehicle and a smaller Earth Return Orbiter. To this end, in a recent development, Lockheed Martin has proposed a commercially-led approach to NASA for executing the MRS mission at a firm-fixed price of under $3 billion. This is a bold alternative to the agency's current MSR cost projections, which are nearing $7 billion. As global interest in space continues to rise, such initiatives should bolster the long-term prospects of Lockheed Martin's space business. Prospects for Other Space Stocks The global space economy's growth prospects also offer significant opportunities for other space stocks like The Boeing Company ( BA ) and Rocket Lab USA Corporation ( RKLB ), which have a significant presence in this arena. Boeing has decades of experience supporting major U.S. space missions while actively contributing to both government and commercial projects. The company is the prime contractor for the core stage, upper stage and avionics systems of America's Space Launch System program. BA is also helping return human launch capabilities to U.S. soil through the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft. On the other hand, Rocket Lab, with its advanced Electron rocket and expanding capabilities in small satellite launches, has already established itself as a prominent launcher in the launch services market. The company recently launched its 68th Electron rocket, with 100% mission success so far this year. It is currently developing the Neutron rocket, aimed at supporting larger payloads and satellite constellation deployments, thereby boosting its competitiveness in the medium-lift launch segment. The Zacks Rundown for LMT Shares of LMT have gained 0.1% in the past year compared with the industry 's 19% growth. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research The company shares are trading at a discount on a relative basis, with its forward 12-month Price/Earnings being 16.21X compared with its industry's average of 26.70X. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for LMT's 2025 and 2026 earnings has moved south over the past 60 days. LMT stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days Just released: Experts distill 7 elite stocks from the current list of 220 Zacks Rank #1 Strong Buys. They deem these tickers "Most Likely for Early Price Pops." Since 1988, the full list has beaten the market more than 2X over with an average gain of +23.5% per year. So be sure to give these hand picked 7 your immediate attention. See them now >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report The Boeing Company (BA): Free Stock Analysis Report Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT): Free Stock Analysis Report Rocket Lab Corporation (RKLB): Free Stock Analysis Report
