US Congress members have united in a plea to reverse the budget cuts imposed on NASA's Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission. The President's FY2024 Budget requested $949.3 million for the project, but the Senate appropriations bill for Commerce, Justice, and Science proposed only $300 million. NASA directed the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), leading the MSR mission, to operate as if the budget had been slashed to $300 million, potentially jeopardizing the mission. The letter from Congress warns that such cuts would likely cancel the mission, impacting launch schedules, contracts worth billions, and the employment of hundreds of skilled personnel.
MSR has been a challenging project for NASA, intending to retrieve samples collected by the Perseverance rover and bring them back to Earth for analysis. Originally targeted for a 2030 launch, an Independent Review Board (IRB) appointed by NASA estimated a total cost of $8 billion to $9.6 billion, with additional funding of over $1 billion per year from 2025. The $300 million proposed budget would fall far short of meeting these requirements.
NASA's decision to proceed with budget cuts had prompted a November 2023 letter from Congress members expressing concern over the premature nature of NASA's actions. The signatories were baffled by what they deemed a rash decision.
Current funding for NASA, under a resolution maintaining 2023 levels, poses challenges for MSR. While the FY2024 request is $949.3 million, the Senate appropriations bill could lead to insufficient funds if NASA continues spending at the lower FY2023 levels, which were budgeted at $822 million. The Senate bill further warned that failure to bring MSR costs within the $5.3 billion already allocated could result in mission cancellation, diverting the majority of the $300 million funding to the Artemis Moon exploration program.