Articles for Mars Sample Return

JPL to lay off roughly 5% of its workforce
1 month, 1 week ago

JPL to lay off roughly 5% of its workforce

LA Times  

People work on the Europa Clipper spacecraft project last year at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is preparing to lay off hundreds of employees this week, director Laurie Leshin said in a memo to staff sent Tuesday afternoon. “This is a message I had hoped not to have to write.” This is the third …

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Why NASA’s Mars Sample Return mission has a shaky future
7 months, 3 weeks ago

Why NASA’s Mars Sample Return mission has a shaky future

The Hindu  

A critical NASA mission in the search for life beyond Earth, Mars Sample Return, is in trouble. Mars is the nearest and best place to search for life beyond Earth, and if this ambitious NASA mission unraveled, scientists would lose their chance to learn much more about the red planet. Sample return breaks the bank Mars Sample Return has blown …

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Too expensive, too slow: NASA asks for help with JPL’s Mars Sample Return mission
8 months, 1 week ago

Too expensive, too slow: NASA asks for help with JPL’s Mars Sample Return mission

LA Times  

These tubes hold samples of Martian rocks and dust collected by NASA’s Perseverance rover for the Mars Sample Return mission. In the most recent planetary science decadal survey — a report prepared for NASA every 10 years by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine — planetary scientists named the Mars Sample Return mission as the “highest scientific priority …

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NASA’s attempt to bring home part of Mars is unprecedented. The mission’s problems are not
8 months, 4 weeks ago

NASA’s attempt to bring home part of Mars is unprecedented. The mission’s problems are not

LA Times  

This illustration shows a concept for multiple robots that would team up to bring samples of rocks and soil — being collected from the Martian surface by NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover — back to Earth. “A lot of great science will come out of” Mars Sample Return, said Garth Illingworth, an astronomer emeritus at UC Santa Cruz and former deputy …

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Opinion: Mars rocks are a science prize the U.S. can’t afford to lose
9 months, 2 weeks ago

Opinion: Mars rocks are a science prize the U.S. can’t afford to lose

LA Times  

A NASA photograph taken during the rover Perseverance’s first drive on Mars in 2021. NASA’s most ambitious planetary project yet is Mars Sample Return, a partnership with the European Space Agency to robotically collect and bring back to Earth scientifically invaluable rocks from Mars for study in labs here. Despite that, the review emphasized that the scientific and geopolitical value …

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Budget deal for NASA offers glimmer of hope for JPL’s Mars Sample Return mission
9 months, 2 weeks ago

Budget deal for NASA offers glimmer of hope for JPL’s Mars Sample Return mission

LA Times  

Tubes holding samples of rock cores, broken rock and dust collected by NASA’s Perseverance rover sit on the surface of Mars. The space agency’s Mars Sample Return mission aims to bring them to Earth for closer study. This week, the House and Senate appropriations committees finalized a deal that would grant a minimum of $300 million for the Mars Sample …

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Budget cuts to Mars Sample Return mission prompt hundreds of layoffs at JPL
10 months, 2 weeks ago

Budget cuts to Mars Sample Return mission prompt hundreds of layoffs at JPL

LA Times  

The mission control room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge. Despite pleas to NASA and the White House from California lawmakers hoping to preserve jobs at the La Cañada Flintridge research institution, the lab let go 530 employees — approximately 8% of its workforce — and 40 additional contractors, JPL Director Laurie Leshin said in a memo …

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NASA sets up board to review Mars sample return plans
4 years, 4 months ago

NASA sets up board to review Mars sample return plans

India TV News  

After sending a sophisticated sampling system with the Perseverance rover which is now on its way to Mars, NASA established an independent board which will help it in accomplishing the complicated mission of returning samples from the Red Planet. The ‘Mars Sample Return Programme Independent Review Board' will proactively assist the US space agency with analysis of current plans and …

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