NASA Mars Program

New Administrator means new direction for NASA

Mars colony ~ credit SpaceX

Human exploration of Mars has remained a horizon goal for NASA since its inception but is now coming into sharp focus. In a few short months Jared Isaacman will become the next NASA Administrator, and expects SpaceX to accelerate both the moon and Mars efforts.

“Starship is going to be a revolutionary step forward, it’s a total game changer, and when it comes online we are going to very quickly return to the moon and Mars.” ~ Jared Isaacman/Bloomberg Technology

Recently Jared commanded Polaris Dawn, a Crew Dragon mission to research deep space conditions and test Starship related technologies. This gave him deep insight into Starship’s potential and SpaceX’s peerless capabilities.

“I’ve never seen an organization like SpaceX, There’s a lot of companies that have mission and vision statement on their website that no one cares about. I can tell you there’s 14,000 people who show up for work every day at SpaceX and they believe there is no greater impact they can make in the world than trying to make life multiplanetary.” ~ Jared Isaacman/Bloomberg Technology

Fortunately Jared is one of the least controversial nominees, which should speed Senate confirmation, allowing him to assume the helm at NASA relatively quickly. However, as NASA Administrator he must treat all stakeholders evenhandedly, although this might end up favoring SpaceX...

Mars Sample Return

NASA’s Perseverance rover has steadily collected samples of Mars regolith and atmosphere for 3 years, with a view to returning them to Earth for analysis. The proposed Mars Sample Return (MSR) plan proved unwieldy and unnecessarily expensive, so NASA commissioned studies to provide commercial alternatives. SpaceX offered Starship, which seems ambitious considering they only have a few kilograms of samples to return to Earth. However, using Starship for MSR does offer a number of inalienable advantages: -

1. Starship is mass produced and reusable hence an order of magnitude lower cost

2. SpaceX’s unrivaled record of successful space operations

3. Starship was specifically designed for Mars landing missions and currently flying

4. Multiple Earth return vehicles could be carried on a single Starship, providing redundancy and increasing the amount of samples returned

Overall Starship is a shoo-in for MSR, specially considering the long term advantages for NASA.

“The first Starships to Mars will launch in 2 years when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens. These will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing intact on Mars. If those landings go well, then the first crewed flights to Mars will be in 4 years.”~ Elon Musk

If SpaceX send the first crew missions to Mars in late 2028, this would be a golden opportunity for NASA to explore the red planet. Of course they will need to human rate Starship, but awarding MSR to SpaceX would be a valuable step in the process. This would allow NASA to oversee Starship safety and familiarize themself with Mars landings, before they commit to sending their valuable astronauts.

Funding Mars