NASA’s original plan to obtain rocks and soil specimens from Mars to Earth has an estimated cost of $11 billion. NASA’s goal is to get 30, cigar-sized, titanium tubes of Martian materials to Earth as cheap and expeditious as possible.
Bill Nelson, NASA’s administrator, reviewed two progressive plans to cut the price by 4 to 3 billion dollars less than the primary amount. The first alternative plan is more “traditional” and would use a rocket-steered platform called a sky crane. This method uses the same landing technique as previous Mars expeditions such as the Perseverance and Curiosity rovers. Although not many details were included, the other possible option would be to use a landing system created by private companies. AP News stated that the space company would decide by next year which choice they will use.
https://apnews.com/article/nasa-mars-sample-return-6b6028cd2866f41f39864717f70e979d
