NASA plans to send people on a scientific tour to Mars, possibly as early as 2035. The journey will take around six to seven months each and last as long as 3 months 250 million miles (402 million kilometers) each way. The astronauts could spend as much as 500 days on the planet's surface before returning to Earth.

NASA Artemis program plans to return humans to the Moon this decade with a view to practice and prepare for a Mars mission as early because the 2030s. While NASA has several reasons for pursuing such an ambitious mission, crucial reason is scientific exploration and discovery.

I’m an atmospheric scientist and former NASA researcher helped determine the scientific questions a Mars mission would investigate. There are many mysteries to explore on the Red Planet, including why Mars looks the best way it does today and whether it has ever harbored life, past or present.

Geology of Mars

Mars is an interesting planet from a geological and atmospheric standpoint. It formed with the remainder of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. About 3.8 billion years ago At the identical time, life emerged on EarthEarly Mars was very Earth-like. It had that loads of liquid water on its surface in the shape of oceans, lakes and rivers and had a denser atmosphere.

While Mars' surface is now completely devoid of liquid water, scientists have discovered evidence of ancient lakes, rivers and even a beach on its surface. Its north and south poles are covered in frozen water, with a skinny layer of frozen carbon dioxide. At the South Pole, the carbon dioxide envelope disappears in summer and the frozen water stays free.

Today the atmosphere of Mars may be very thin and about 95% carbon dioxide. It is crammed with atmospheric dust from the surface, giving the Martian atmosphere its characteristic reddish color.

Scientists know lots in regards to the planet's surface by sending robotic missions, but there are still many interesting geological features that must be studied in additional detail. These features could tell researchers more in regards to the formation of the solar system.

The northern and southern hemispheres of Mars look very different. About a 3rd of Mars' surface – mostly within the Northern Hemisphere – lies 2 to 4 miles (3.2 to six.4 kilometers) lower in elevation, called northern lowlands. The northern lowlands have some large craters but are relatively smooth. The southern two thirds of the planet are called the southern highlandshas many very old craters.

Mars has that too largest volcanoes that scientists have observed within the solar system. Its surface is peppered with deep craters by asteroid and meteor impacts that occurred within the early history of Mars. Sending astronauts to check these features may help researchers understand how and when necessary events occurred in Mars' early history.

Ask the precise questions

NASA formed a committee called the Human Exploration of Mars Science Analysis Group to plan the long run mission. Along with NASA scientist James B. Garvin, I led the panel to develop and evaluate it Key science questions on Mars. We wanted to search out out which research questions require a human mission slightly than cheaper robotic missions.

The panel developed recommendations on several necessary scientific questions regarding human exploration of Mars.

One query is whether or not there’s life on the planet today. Remember, life on Earth arose about 3.8 billion years ago, when Earth and Mars were similar-looking planets, each with abundant liquid water, and Mars had a denser atmosphere.

Another query is what form of environmental changes caused Mars to lose the widespread, abundant liquid water on its surface, in addition to a few of its atmosphere.

These questions, together with other recommendations from the panel, made it into NASA's architectural plan to send humans to Mars.

How do you get to Mars?

To send people to Mars and return them safely to Earth, NASA has developed a brand new, very powerful launch vehicle called Space Launch System and a brand new one human carrier spacecraft called Orion.

To prepare and train astronauts for all times on Mars and exploration of Mars, NASA has launched a brand new program to return humans to the Moon Artemis program.

In mythology, Artemis was the dual sister of Apollo. The Artemis astronauts will live and work on the moon for months to organize for all times and work on Mars.

The Space Launch System and Orion Successful launch on November 16, 2022 as a part of the Artemis I mission. It was the Artemis program's first unmanned flight to the moon, and there Orion orbited the moon for six days, traveling as much as 80 miles (129 kilometers) above the surface.

Artemis I landed back on Earth on December 11, 2022, after its 1.4 million mile (2.2 million kilometer) maiden voyage.

Artemis IIIis the primary mission to return humans to the lunar surface planned for 2026. The Artemis astronauts will land on the moon's south pole, where scientists imagine there could also be large deposits of underground water in the shape of ice that astronauts could mine, melt, purify and drink. The Artemis astronauts will establish habitats on the lunar surface and spend several months exploring the lunar surface.

Since the moon is one just 240,000 miles (386,000 km) from Earthit’ll function a training ground for future human exploration of Mars. While a Mars mission remains to be a few years away, the Artemis program will help NASA develop the capabilities it must explore the Red Planet.

NASA plans to send manned missions to Mars in the following decade – however the 140 million miles (225 million kilometers) journey to the Red Planet The round trip can take several months to years.

This relatively long duration is on account of using conventional chemical rocket fuel. An alternative technology to the chemically powered rockets the agency is currently developing is known as nuclear thermal propulsion, which uses nuclear fission and will One day power a rocket This means the journey only takes half the time.

Nuclear fission utilizes the incredible amount of energy released when an atom is split by a neutron. The The response is known as a cleavage response. Fission technology is well established in power generation and nuclear-powered submarines, and its application to power or propel a rocket could sooner or later give NASA a faster and more powerful alternative to chemically powered rockets.

NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are joint development of NTP technology. They plan to deploy a prototype system into space and reveal its capabilities in 2027 – potentially making it one in all the primary of its kind to be built and operated by the US

Nuclear thermal propulsion could also sooner or later provide energy maneuverable space platforms that may protect American satellites out and in of Earth orbit. But the technology remains to be developing.

I’m a Associate Professor of Nuclear Engineering on the Georgia Institute of Technology whose Research group creates models and simulations to enhance and optimize designs for nuclear thermal propulsion systems. My hope and fervour is to assist develop the nuclear thermal propulsion engine that can enable a manned mission to Mars.

Nuclear versus chemical propulsion

Traditional chemical propulsion systems use a chemical response involving a lightweight fuel akin to hydrogen and an oxidizer. When these two mix together, they ignite, causing the fuel to come back out of the nozzle in a short time and power the rocket.

These systems don’t require an ignition system and are due to this fact reliable. However, these rockets need to move oxygen into space, which might put a strain on them. Unlike chemical propulsion systems, nuclear thermal propulsion systems depend on nuclear fission reactions to heat the fuel, which is then ejected from the nozzle to supply the propulsion force or thrust.

In many fission reactions, researchers send a neutron toward a lighter uranium isotopeUranium-235. The uranium absorbs the neutron and uranium-236 is created. The uranium-236 then breaks down into two fragments – the fission products – and various particles are released throughout the response.

More than 400 nuclear reactors in use worldwide currently use nuclear fission technology. Most of those nuclear reactors are in operation Light water reactors. These nuclear fission reactors use water to decelerate the neutrons and absorb and transfer heat. The water can produce steam directly within the core or in a steam generator that drives a turbine to generate electricity.

Nuclear thermal propulsion systems work in the same way, but use a distinct nuclear fuel that accommodates more uranium-235. They also work at significantly higher temperatures, which makes them extremely powerful and compact. Nuclear thermal propulsion systems have an influence density around ten times higher than a traditional light water reactor.

Nuclear propulsion could possibly be a step ahead of chemical propulsion just a few reasons.

A nuclear engine would eject and produce fuel in a short time from the engine's nozzle high thrust. This high thrust allows the rocket to speed up faster.

These systems even have a high specific impulse. Specific impulse measures how efficiently the fuel is used to generate thrust. Nuclear thermal propulsion systems have about twice the precise impulse as chemical rockets, meaning they may reduce travel time by an element of two.

History of Nuclear Thermal Propulsion

For many years, the U.S. government has funded the event of nuclear thermal propulsion technology. Between 1955 and 1973 programs were at NASA, General Electric And Argonne National Laboratories produced and tested 20 nuclear thermal propulsion engines.

But these pre-1973 designs relied on highly enriched uranium as fuel. For this reason, this fuel is not any longer used Dangers of proliferationor threats related to the proliferation of nuclear materials and technology.

The Global Threat Reduction Initiativelaunched by the Ministry of Energy and National Nuclear Safety Authoritygoals to convert most of the research reactors that use highly enriched uranium fuel to high sample low enriched uranium fuel (HALEU).

Compared to highly enriched uranium fuel, highly enriched, low enriched uranium fuel accommodates less material that may undergo a fission response. So the rockets need to be loaded with more HALEU fuel, which makes the engine heavier. To solve this problem, researchers are searching for special materials that might use the fuel in these reactors more efficiently.

NASA and the DARPAs Demonstration rocket for agile cislunar operationsThe program (DRACO) intends to make use of this low enriched, high content uranium fuel in its nuclear thermal propulsion engine. The program plans to launch its rocket in 2027.

As a part of the DRACO program, aerospace company Lockheed Martin has partnered with BWX Technologies Development of reactor and fuel designs.

The nuclear thermal propulsion engines under development by these groups must meet certain performance and safety standards. You need a core that’s operational in the course of the mission and might perform the essential maneuvers for a quick journey to Mars.

Ideally, the engine should have the ability to generate high specific impulse while meeting the necessities of high thrust and low engine mass.

Ongoing research

Before engineers can design an engine that meets all of those standards, they need to start with models and simulations. These models help researchers like those in my group understand how the engine would handle starting and shutting down. These are processes that require rapid, massive changes in temperature and pressure.

The nuclear thermal propulsion engine shall be different from any existing nuclear fission energy system, so engineers might want to develop software tools that work with this latest engine.

My group Designs and analyses Reactors with thermal nuclear propulsion based on models. We model these complex reactor systems to see how things like temperature changes can affect the reactor and the security of the rocket. However, simulating these effects can require a number of expensive computing power.

We worked on it develop latest computing tools This model shows how these reactors behave while they’re in operation Commissioning and operation without using up a lot computing power.

My colleagues and I hope that this research can sooner or later help develop models that might control the rocket autonomously.

Curious Kids is a show for teenagers of all ages. If you’ve a matter you'd like an authority to reply, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.

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Is it possible that at some point we will create Mars like Earth? – Tyla, 16, Mississippi

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When I used to be in middle school, my biology teacher showed our class the science fiction film “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.”

The plot captivated me with its portrayal of the “Genesis Project“” – a brand new technology that transformed a dead alien world right into a world vigorous.

After watching the movie, my teacher asked us to write down an essay about this technology. Was it realistic? Was it ethical? And to channel our inner Spock, was it logical? This task had a huge effect on me.

Fast forward to today, and I’m an engineer and professor Development of technologies to expand human presence beyond Earth.

For example: I’m working on advanced propulsion systems to take spacecraft beyond Earth orbit. I’m helping to develop lunar constructing technologies to support NASA's goal of long-term human presence on the moonAnd I used to be in a team that showed How to 3D print habitats on Mars.

Providing supplies to people beyond Earth would require an ideal deal of time, energy and imagination, but engineers and scientists have begun to deal with the various challenges.

An incomplete checklist: food, water, shelter, air

After the Moon, Mars is the subsequent logical place for humans outside of Earth.

But is it possible to terraform Mars – that’s, to remodel it into something more like Earth and support life – or is that this only a fantasy from science fiction?

To continue to exist Mars, humans need liquid water, food, shelter, and an environment that gives enough oxygen to breathe and is thick enough to retain heat and protect against the sun's radiation.

But the Martian atmosphere is just about all carbon dioxidepractically without oxygen. And it is vitally thin – only about 1% as dense because the Earth.

The thinner an environment, the less heat it could actually store. Earth's atmosphere is thick enough to store enough heat to sustain life. just like the greenhouse effect.

On Mars, nevertheless, the atmosphere is so thin that the temperature recurrently drops to -101 degrees Celsius (150 degrees Fahrenheit below zero) at night.

So what’s the most effective method to give Mars an environment?

Although there are not any lively volcanoes on Mars – so far as we all know – scientists could trigger volcanic eruptions through nuclear explosions. The deeply trapped gases in a volcano can be released after which drift into the atmosphereBut this plan is a bit crazy since the explosions would also release deadly radioactive material into the air.

A greater idea: redirecting water-rich comets and asteroids in order that they crash into Mars. This would also release gases from the planet's subsurface into the atmosphere and at the identical time release the water contained within the comets. NASA has already shown that It is feasible to redirect asteroids – but to attain something, relatively large ones and plenty of of them are needed.

Making Mars comfortable

There are quite a few ways to heat up the planet. For example, giant mirrors in-built space and placed in orbit around Mars could reflect sunlight onto the surface and warm it up.

A recent study suggested that Mars colonists could spread Aerogelan ultralight solid material, on the bottom. The aerogel would act as insulation and retain heat. This could occur anywhere on Mars, including the polar ice caps, where the aerogel could melt the prevailing ice and create liquid water.

To grow food, you would like soil. On Earth, soil consists of five ingredients: minerals, organic substances, living organisms, gases and water.

However, Mars is roofed by a layer of loose, dust-like material, RegolithThink of it as Martian sand. The regolith accommodates few nutrients, not enough for healthy plant growth, and it accommodates some harmful chemicals. so-called perchloratesused on earth in fireworks and explosives.

Clean the regolith and transform it into something usable wouldn’t be easyWhat foreign soil needs is a Mars fertilizerpossibly by adding Extremophiles robust microbes imported from Earth and survive even the harshest conditionsGenetically modified organisms are also a possibility.

Through photosynthesis, these organisms would begin converting carbon dioxide into oxygen. As Mars eventually became more hospitable to Earth-like organisms, colonists were in a position to introduce more complex plants and even animals.

Providing oxygen, water and food in the precise quantities is incredibly complex. On Earth, scientists have tried to simulate this in Biosphere 2a closed ecosystem with ocean, tropical and desert habitats. Although all habitats in Biosphere 2 are controlled, even there scientists struggle to seek out the precise balance. Mother Nature really knows what she's doing.

A house on Mars

Buildings may very well be manufactured using 3D printing. First, they’d need to be pressurized and guarded until temperatures and air conditions on Mars are much like those on Earth. Technologies for the autonomous construction of planets from the Moon to Mars The program explores how exactly this could be achieved.

There are many other challenges. For example different from the earthMars has no Magnetospherethat protects a planet from solar wind and cosmic radiation. Without a magnetic field, an excessive amount of radiation penetrates for living beings to stay healthy. There are Possibilities for generating a magnetic fieldbut to date the scientific status could be very speculative.

In fact, all the technologies I even have described are far beyond the present capabilities required to terraform Mars. Their development would require enormous amounts of research and money, probably far more than is feasible within the near future. Although the Genesis device from Star Trek III could terraform a planet in a matter of minutes, terraforming Mars would take centuries and even millennia.

And before we start turning Mars right into a second Earth, many ethical questions have to be addressed. Is it right to alter one other planet so drastically and permanently?

If all this disappoints you, don't be. As scientists develop innovations to terraform Mars, we'll also use them to make life higher on Earth. Remember the technology we're developing to 3D print habitats on Mars? Right now, I'm a part of a gaggle of scientists and engineers using that very technology to print homes here on Earth – which is able to help solve the issue. Housing shortage on the earth.

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Hey, curious kids! Do you’ve a matter you'd like an authority to reply? Ask an adult to send your query to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Please tell us your name, age and the town you reside in.

And since curiosity knows no age limit, adults can take part too. Let us know what interests you. We can't answer every query, but we'll do our greatest.

Of the greater than 74,000 known meteorites – Pieces of rock that fall to Earth from colliding asteroids or planets – only about 385 rocks come from the planet Mars.

It just isn’t difficult for scientists to find out that these meteorites come from Mars. Various landers and rovers have been exploring the surface of Mars for a long time. Some of the early missions – the Viking Landers – had the equipment to measure the composition of the planet’s atmosphere. Scientists have shown that this unique atmospheric composition of Mars may be measured in a few of these meteorites.

Mars also has unique oxygen. Everything on Earth, including people and the air we breathe, is manufactured from a selected composition of the three isotopes of the element oxygen: Oxygen-16, oxygen-17 and oxygen-18But Mars has a totally different composition – it's like a geochemical fingerprint that he's a Martian.

The Martian meteorites found on Earth provide Geologists like me Clues in regards to the composition of the red planet and its history of volcanic activity. They allow us to review Mars without sending a spacecraft there. 140 million miles away.

A planet of paradoxes

These Martian meteorites formed from what was once red-hot magma inside Mars. As these volcanic rocks cooled and crystallized, the radioactive elements inside them began to decay and acted as radiometric clock This allows scientists to find out once they were created.

From these radiometric ages we all know that some Martian meteorites are only 175 million years oldwhich is – geologically speaking – quite young. Conversely, a number of the Martian meteorites are olderand was formed at in regards to the same time that Mars itself was formed.

These Martian meteorites tell the story of a planet that has been volcanically energetic throughout its history. In fact, even today, there continues to be a possibility of Martian volcanoes erupting, although scientists have never observed such an eruption.

The rocks themselves also contain chemical information that indicates that a few of crucial events on Mars occurred in its early history. Mars was formed quite quickly4.5 billion years ago, from the gas and dirt that made up the early solar system. Then, very soon after its formation, its interior separated right into a metallic core and a solid rocky mantle and crust.

Since then, the inside of Mars seems to have been barely disturbed – unlike on Earth, where plate tectonics has stirred up and homogenized the inside of the Earth. To use an analogy from the food industry: The interior of the Earth is sort of a smoothie and the inside of Mars is sort of a fruit salad.

Remains of a Martian volcano

Understanding how Mars experienced such an early and violent youth and yet can still have volcanic activity today is an area that interests me greatly. I would really like to know what the inside of Mars looks like and the way its internal composition could explain Features like volcanoeson the surface of the red planet.

When geologists wish to answer questions on volcanism on Earth, they typically study samples of lava that erupted from the identical volcano somewhere else or at different times. These samples allow us to differentiate local processes specific to every volcano from planetary processes that occur on a bigger scale.

It seems we will do the identical for Mars. The fairly exotically named nakhlite and chassignite meteorites are a gaggle of rocks from Mars which can be manufactured from the identical Volcanic system about 1.3 billion years ago.

Nakhlites are basaltic rocksmuch like the lavas you’d find in Iceland or Hawaii, with beautiful large crystals of a mineral called clinopyroxene. Chassignites are rocks consists almost exclusively of the green mineral olivine – you could know the Gem quality variant of this mineral, Peridot.

Along with far more common shergottitesthat are also manufactured from basalt rock, and another, more exotic kinds of Martian meteorites. These meteorite categories represent all of the rocks that researchers possess from the red planet.

Studying nakhlites and chassignites together can tell researchers several things about Mars. First, because the molten rocks that formed them seeped to the surface and eventually cooled and crystallized, a number of the surrounding older rocks melted together with them.

This older rock doesn’t exist in our meteorite collection, so my team needed to determine its composition using the chemical information we had obtained from nakhlites. From this information, we learned that the older rock was basaltic in composition and chemically different from other Martian meteorites. We found that it had been chemically weathered by contact with water and salt water.

This older stone is completely different from the samples of Martian crust in our current meteorite collection. In fact, it’s far more much like what we’d expect based on data from rover missions and satellites orbiting Mars.

We know that the magmas that formed nakhlites and chassignites got here from a selected a part of the Martian mantle. The mantle is the rocky part between the crust and the metallic core of Mars. These nakhlites and chassignites got here from the solid, rigid shell at the highest of the Martian mantle. often called mantle lithosphereand this source distinguishes it from the more common shergottites.

Shergottites come from at the very least two sources inside Mars. They could originate from parts of the mantle directly beneath the lithosphere and even from deep coatwhich is closer to the planet's metallic core.

Understanding how volcanoes work on Mars can inform future research questions that missions to the planet will try to reply. It can even help scientists understand whether the planet was ever habitable or whether it may very well be in the long run.

Information on habitability

Earth's energetic geological processes and volcanoes are a part of what makes our planet habitable. The gases emitted by volcanoes are an important a part of our atmosphere, so if similar geological processes exist on Mars, that may very well be excellent news for the red planet's potential habitability.

However, Mars is way smaller than Earth and studies suggest that it’s losing the chemical elements vital for sustainable Atmosphere since its creation. In the long run, it’s going to probably look nothing like Earth.

Our next steps in understanding Mars lie in studying the formation of the basaltic shergottite meteorites, a various and complicated group of rocks ranging in age from 175 million years to 2.4 billion years or so.

Studying these meteorites more closely will help prepare the subsequent generation of scientists to research rocks collected by the Perseverance rover for NASA's upcoming mission. Mission to return samples to Mars.

An important NASA mission within the search for all times beyond Earth. Mars sample return, is in trouble. It is The budget exploded from $5 billion to over $11 billion, and the sample return date could shift from the top of this decade to 2040.

The mission could be the primary to try and bring rock samples from Mars back to Earth in order that scientists can examine them for signs of past life.

said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson during a press conference on April 15, 2024, that the mission in its current form was too expensive and too slow. NASA gave private firms a month to submit proposals for a faster, less expensive option to return the samples.

As astronomer who studies cosmology and wrote a book about it early missions to MarsI checked out the sample return saga. Mars is the closest and best place to look for all times beyond Earth, and if this ambitious NASA mission fails, scientists would lose their likelihood to learn rather more in regards to the Red Planet.

The habitability of Mars

The first NASA missions When he reached the surface of Mars in 1976, it was revealed that the planet was an ice-cold desert, uninhabitable and not using a thick atmosphere to guard life from the sun's ultraviolet radiation. But studies conducted during the last decade suggest the planet can have been it much warmer and wetter several billion years ago.

The curiosity And Endurance Rovers have each shown that the planet's early environment was suitable for microbial life.

They found the chemical constructing blocks of life and signs of surface water within the distant past. Curiosity, which landed on Mars in 2012, remains to be energetic; Its twin Perseverance, which landed on Mars in 2021, will play a vital role within the sample return mission.

Why Astronomers Want Mars Samples

NASA looked for life in a Martian rock for the primary time in 1996. Scientists claimed they found microscopic fossils of bacteria inside Martian meteorite ALH84001. This meteorite is a bit of Mars that landed in Antarctica 13,000 years ago and was recovered in 1984. Scientists disagreed about whether the meteorite had ever actually harbored biology, and Today most scientists agree that there isn’t enough evidence that the rock accommodates fossils.

Several hundred Martian meteorites have been found on Earth within the last 40 years. These are free samples that fell to Earth. Although it could appear intuitive to review them, scientists cannot say where on Mars these meteorites formed. They were also thrown off the planet's surface by impacts, and these violent events could easily have destroyed or altered subtle evidence of life within the rocks.

There is not any substitute for it Bring samples back from a region that was previously considered livable. As a result, the agency faces a price tag of $700 million per ounce, making these samples the most costly material ever collected.

A charming and complicated mission

Bringing Martian rocks back to Earth is probably the most ambitious mission NASA has ever undertaken, and the primary phase has already begun.

Endurance has accrued over two dozen rock and soil samplesand deposited them on the ground of Jezero Crater, a region that was likely once flooded with water and will have harbored life. The rover puts the samples into containers the dimensions of test tubes. Once the rover has filled all of the sample tubes, it can collect them and convey them to the situation where NASA is situated Sample return landing device will land. The Sample Retrieval Lander features a rocket to deliver the samples into orbit around Mars.

The European Space Agency has developed one Earth return orbiter, which can rendezvous with the rocket in orbit and capture the basketball-sized sample container. The samples are then robotically sealed in a biocontainment system and transferred to an Earth entry capsule that is a component of the Earth Return Orbiter. After the long journey home, the entry capsule will parachute to the Earth's surface.

The complex choreography of this mission, involving a rover, a lander, a rocket, an orbiter and the coordination of two space agencies, is unprecedented. It is the explanation for the exploding budget and the long schedule.

The sample return breaks the bank

Mars Sample Return has burned a hole in NASA's budget, threatening other missions that need funding.

The NASA center behind the mission, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, just laid off over 500 employees. It is probably going that Mars Sample Return's budget was partly accountable for the layoffs, but they were also resulting from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory having an overloaded roster of planetary missions and suffering Budget cuts.

Within the past 12 months a… independent review board report and a report from the NASA Office of Inspector General behaved deep worries in regards to the feasibility of the sample return mission. These reports described the mission's design as overly complex and pointed to problems comparable to inflation, supply chain problems, and unrealistic cost and schedule estimates.

So is NASA I feel the warmth of Congress. For fiscal 12 months 2024, the Senate Budget Committee has cut NASA's planetary science budget by over half a billion dollars. If NASA can't keep costs under control, the mission could even be canceled.

Think outside the box

Given these challenges NASA has issued an appeal for revolutionary designs from the private sector, with the aim of reducing the fee and complexity of the mission. Proposals have to be submitted by May 17, an especially tight timeline for such an ambitious design effort. And it can be difficult for personal firms to enhance on the plan that experts on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory spent greater than a decade developing.

An vital potential actor in this case is the commercial space company SpaceX. NASA is already working with SpaceX on America's return to the moon. For the Artemis III missionSpaceX will try and land humans on the moon for the primary time in greater than 50 years.

However, the enormous Starship rocket that SpaceX will use for Artemis had few three test flights and rather more development is required before NASA can entrust it with a human cargo.

Basically a Spaceship rocket could bring back a big load of Martian rocks in a single two-year mission and at a much lower cost. But Starship comes with great things Risks and uncertainties. It's not clear whether this rocket could bring back the samples that Perseverance has already collected.

Starship uses a Launchpad, and it will need to be refueled for the return journey. But there is no such thing as a launch pad or gas station at Jezero Crater. Starship is designed to move people, but when astronauts are going to Mars to gather samples, SpaceX will need a Starship rocket even larger than those it has tested to this point.

Sending astronauts also carries additional risks and costs, and a technique to deploy humans could find yourself being more complicated than NASA's current plan.

Given all of those pressures and limitations, NASA decided to see if the private sector could discover a successful solution. We'll discover the reply next month.