And the financial issues of this program may also affect other missions
NASA's Mars sample return program has encountered development problems, according to an audit conducted by NASA's Office of Inspector General (OIG). The audit revealed that the program «stalled» at the stage of «getting off the drawing board», not to mention the launch pad,— the technology is simply not ready and cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA) is not helping.
The Mars Sample Return (MSR) program requires the creation of three spacecraft. Orbiter ERO — designed for flight to Mars and subsequent return to Earth. The SRL sampling lander is set to collect samples recovered by the Perseverance rover. These samples must then be transferred to the module, which will then load them into the ERO. However, to date, none of the three devices have been created, since the projects are in an early stage.
OIG, in an audit of the program released late last week, found that MSR faces many obstacles during the development phase, including difficulties in creating a stable design, realistically estimating costs and establishing a schedule for completion of the work. The program's development has been delayed by at least 7 months, largely due to technical problems that NASA has encountered on other flagship missions. These problems led to an increase in the program's budget from an initial estimate of $2.5 billion to $7.4 billion. Such changes raise serious questions about the financial feasibility of the program.
One aspect of the MSR program that would facilitate its implementation was the collaboration between NASA and ESA. However, the auditor found problems in this collaboration related to lack of schedule transparency, time constraints and difficulties in resource allocation, which are likely related to different operational approaches, acquisition strategies and financing mechanisms.
NASA is currently at the threshold of a Key Decision Point (KDP-C), which is the review upon which NASA will consider moving from program formulation to program development. However, the auditor expressed doubts that NASA should move to this step, given that the aerospace agency still does not have accurate budget estimates. Even if NASA can provide accurate estimates, the auditor worries that the MSR program budget could be so high that it affects other NASA missions.
Therefore, the auditor recommends that NASA consider the MSR program as a comprehensive plan that includes various mission scenarios and takes into account the interests of stakeholders. OIG proposes to develop a set of potential scenarios, including life cycle and schedule cost estimates and the degree of schedule certainty for each scenario. This will allow NASA management to evaluate possible alternatives to the current MSR program plan.
NASA has already agreed with the recommendations and intends to discuss possible options. However, given the problems and delays, it is possible that plans to bring samples back from Mars could be changed or even cancelled. So far, the Perseverance rover has already collected 23 of the 38 planned samples, which are located in a small area of u200bu200bthe Martian surface and may well await adjustments to MSR plans.