{"id":583428,"date":"2023-07-19T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-19T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/senate-puts-nasa-on-notice-over-mars-mission\/"},"modified":"2023-07-19T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-07-19T10:00:00","slug":"senate-puts-nasa-on-notice-over-mars-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/senate-puts-nasa-on-notice-over-mars-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"#Senate puts NASA on notice over Mars mission"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a34be3c0c8a8\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a34be3c0c8a8\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/senate-puts-nasa-on-notice-over-mars-mission\/#More_from_The_Hill\" >More from The Hill<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/06\/MarsPerserverance_021721_AP.jpg?w=900\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The Senate is signaling deep skepticism about NASA\u2019s ambitious plans to fetch samples of soil from the red planet, expressing concerns over the mission\u2019s cost and viability.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Senate <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ropriators <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.appropriations.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/fy24_cjs_report.pdf\">are offering just<\/a> $300 million in funding for fiscal 2024 for the Mars mission \u2014 less than a third of the $949 million budget request from NASA.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Appropriators also say they have deep doubts about whether NASA can complete the mission, known as Mars Sample Return (MSR).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Committee has significant concerns about the technical challenges facing MSR and potential further impacts on confirmed missions, even before MSR has completed preliminary design review,\u201d the Appropriations Commerce, Justice, <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/sciencee\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"5\" title=\"Science\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Science<\/a>, and Related Agencies subcommittee wrote in <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.appropriations.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/fy24_cjs_report.pdf\">an appropriations bill<\/a> outlining the funding for 2024.<\/p>\n<p>It further said it would rescind the $300 million allocated for the mission if the agency cannot guarantee that overall cost will not exceed $5.3 billion. NASA estimates that the mission\u2019s development costs, which were originally $4.4 billion, have soared to more than $9 billion.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Notably, this price tag only represents the cost of developing and testing the mission\u2019s components. It does not include launch costs or operating costs for the mission\u2019s planned five-year timeframe. It also doesn\u2019t include construction of any new sample-receiving facility that may be required to handle the rock and soil samples.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The samples in question have been collected by NASA\u2019s newest Mars rover \u2014 Perseverance \u2014which launched to Mars in 2020. The rover was dispatched to Mars to help find signs of life, and was tasked with scooping up samples of the Martian surface and subsurface. So far, Perseverance has collected 18 of 43 planned samples.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The ability to collect and study samples could provide scientists with unprecedented data on Mars, helping to fill in the gaps about how the planet changed over time. They could help scientists understand whether Mars was habitable and may even contain definitive signs of life \u2014 either past or present.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr2_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>NASA has been working with the European Space Agency to develop <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/mars.nasa.gov\/msr\/multimedia\/videos\/?v=523\">the MSR mission<\/a>. As part of this plan, NASA will build a Sample Retriever Lander that is slated to launch in 2028, although the Senate as well as some within the agency doubt this is a viable launch date.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As NASA has been working on developing the <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/technology\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"4\" title=\"Technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">technology<\/a> needed for the mission, costs have ballooned. First estimates indicated the\u00a0cost of this mission would be around $4 billion, but according to the committee\u2019s report, the space agency has already spent more than $1 billion. The subcommittee also flagged that the planned 2028 launch date is very aggressive and likely to slip, increasing cost overruns.<\/p>\n<p>NASA also convened an Institutional Review Board to review the MRS mission and determine its best path of success. The board is expected to issue its findings in late August or early September.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr3_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>A periodic polling of the scientific community designed to flag important NASA missions last year estimated that MSR would cost around $5.3 billion, the limit the Senate is now setting.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>If NASA cannot guarantee it can complete the mission for this amount, the Mars program faces cancellation, and the Senate will transfer the $300 million to other missions, with the bulk of it going to the Artemis lunar program. That mission aims to return astronauts to the surface of the moon and establish a small space station in orbit around the moon.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"More_from_The_Hill\"><\/span>More from The Hill<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">Scientists in the same survey said the Mars mission was highly critical, and that it was worth asking Congress for more money to complete it. They argued that the request would help to ensure that any extra funding would not be taken away from other science missions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr4_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>But NASA faces significant headwinds in winning more funding,\u00a0as congressional negotiators feel the pressure to keep overall government spending in line with a budget caps deal worked out between President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) earlier this year.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) described himself as a NASA supporter but acknowledged\u00a0during consideration of NASA funding in the Senate Appropriations Committee\u00a0last week that the cuts will lead to\u00a0\u201csignificant challenges\u201d in continuing\u00a0all of the agency\u2019s\u00a0programs. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were able to protect the most important national priority within NASA\u2019s budget, which is to return to the moon and maintain our strategic advantage in space,\u201d said Moran,\u00a0the top Republican on the spending subpanel overseeing NASA funding. \u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr5_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Costs for the Mars program have risen for a number of reasons.<\/p>\n<p>There were technical flaws in the original mission concept, which involved a single lander and a small rover to retrieve the samples. There were also large errors in the technical requirements of the mission which meant that more hardware was needed, which costs more money.<\/p>\n<p>Staffing issues at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., has also delayed multiple missions, including MSR.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr6_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>This isn\u2019t the first time a mission was massively over budget or the first time a major NASA mission faced cancellation.<\/p>\n<p>The James Webb Space Telescope faced its own possible cancellation in 2011, but went on to launch in 2021 despite a ballooning budget that ended up costing $10 billion. NASA\u2019s Artemis lunar program is also massively <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/oig.nasa.gov\/docs\/IG-23-015.pdf\">over its planned budget<\/a>, and could end up costing an estimated $93\u00a0billion by the time astronauts reach the lunar surface.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Copyright 2023 Nexstar <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Media<\/a> Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/space\/4103509-senate-puts-nasa-on-notice-over-mars-mission\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Senate is signaling deep skepticism about NASA\u2019s ambitious plans to fetch samples of soil from the red planet, expressing concerns over the mission\u2019s cost and viability.\u00a0\u00a0 Senate appropriators are offering just $300 million in funding for fiscal 2024 for the Mars mission \u2014 less than a third of the $949 million budget request from&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":583429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/06\/MarsPerserverance_021721_AP.jpg?w=1280","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[134417,134343,140225,124783,144577,991,5072,144578,5026,134345,4965],"class_list":["post-583428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-blog-briefing-room","tag-campaign","tag-columnists","tag-international","tag-jerry-moran","tag-joe-biden","tag-mars","tag-msr-program","tag-nasa","tag-state-watch","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}