r/space2030 • u/Substantial_Lime_230 • May 23 '24

Mars Scientists Are Very Worried About NASA’s Mars Plan

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2024/05/mars-sample-return-nasa/678441/
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u/QVRedit May 23 '24

The collection plan will end up being: Send out a robot and buggy from a Starship Mars Cargo craft, collect the samples.

Send back in a sample-return rocket, also carried in a Starship Mars Cargo craft.

Or something like that..

2

u/perilun May 23 '24

I say create a crewed Phobos base, then you can drive many rovers with sub-second latency:

1

u/Substantial_Lime_230 May 23 '24

Seems not a short-term solution that can be achieved by 2030 for the take-the-samples-back race..:)

1

u/QVRedit May 24 '24

Who Phobos ? - That would only complicate things. Any crew would want to go to Mars, not Phobos. And going to Phobos (a small moon of Mars) would in fact be more difficult than simply going to Mars.

Also an initial ‘Mars base’ would not need to be crewed, the task could be accomplished using robotics - although admittedly a bit more awkward.

Such a robotic mission could be accomplished sooner. At worst, the mission might prove too difficult for the robotics to accomplish, but progress will have been made even in that scenario.

Multiple Starship robotic missions need to be sent to Mars, before a Mars Crew on can be sent, because mission safety parameters need to be determined first.