NASA is neglecting other things. Perseverence should pluck Ingenuity out of the sand and set it where it can still observe Mars. If the samples are scattered, maybe they could get gathered and placed near Ingenuity to get scooped up. Once the samples get back to Earth, scientists will fight over them, so those studies don't have to be budgeted now. Treat Ingenuity like a sample and haul it home.

😂😂😂 they're on Devon Island.

Discovered super recently your channel. Excited about already 🎉 🩷❕.🧠

What a Rube Goldberg plan. If wasn't for all the egos involved the sample return could probably be done relatively inexpensively. For example, if the Falcon heavy replaced the spacex upper stage with a Centaur the rocket could deliver a large payload to Mars. Rocket lab could probably design a return vehicle that would launch a capsule directly to earth. But of course that's never going to happen.

Returning samples was always a foolish idea. There are much better places to search for life.

we will find evidence of life. and bacterial and small plant life.

That looks a very complex mission with loads of potential for failure.. I have just read the book Chariots for Apollo and the original schemes were talking of going to the moon and going to Mars also in a sort of continuous long term plan for NASA. I think Kennedy's goal of beating the Russians to the moon was a double edged sword. It gave NASA a short term goal with an ideal point to cut funding. I was also really disappointed when there was no plans to build a Mk2 STS shuttle. I feel the whole of manned space exploration is in the doldrums. I was hoping to see people on Mars in my lifetime but I doubt I will see people on the moon again let alone Mars.

Yep, much better to collect several tons and bring them back with Starship not later than 2035 ... probably much earlier. I bet 1 dollar.

Thank You Mars Guy! It does not sound good to me. I was sure the plan is already prepared and approved!

How about this....Concentrate resources to completing the Mars mission already underway, return the samples to Earth, and delay the other pie-in-the-sky missions to other planets and their moons.

Seems weird to do the study after everything has been sent up to Mars

What's a hail mary pass??

Lol, the waymo drove past my old bartending gig at 5th and University.

One of the most obvious ways to obtain help is to involve china, who have some experience in this sort of thing.

Maybe politely ask China?

there is absolutely no reason why nasa cannot design a nature based ammonia form of lighter than air to use as a sky carrier to reduce costs that houses biological 'fire extinguishers' that eat ammonia for the prevention of environmental contamination. absorbing heat through albedo is a sure fire efficiency booster... Step your game up nasa. you have all the IQ in the room and not a single visionary.

Politics aside, this was always an ill conceived plan that has a near zero chance of seeing the light of day. However without a way of returning these samples, Perseverance is nothing more than a means of delivering Ingenuity to the surface of Mars. Something that could've been for much less if that was the only mission. Perseverance isn't doing what hasn't already been done and is continuing to be done by other rovers. Calling into question the entire mission aside from Ingenuity.

Just get China to go get the samples

If and when the samples get back to earth, this might be the beginning of the end, if will unwittingly bring back some virulent form of bacteria, virus, or worse!

Easy let's get UPS!!! If anybody get the stuff it’s them!

Ok… I’m sexist. But seeing 100% women on that board confirms all of my biases.

Thank you Mars Guy for an excellent update. I want to know how we spent a fortune to send a rover to Mars that’s collecting samples, without a definitive retrieval plan? IMO, someone’s head should be on a spike….(figuratively, not literally) As far as spending another 8 to 11 billion on something that hasn’t even been constructed yet, I say pass…. Put that money into the development of sending a maned expedition for establishing a permanent foothold on Mars… Then maybe figuring out how to more cheaply fetch the samples once that beachhead has been established. ( actually, this is way above my pay grade) 👍🏻😎

at some point this project becomes pointless because people will be going there and can collect the same themselves.

NASA---Let's see how overly complicated and expensive and disappointing we can make this

$200 fine for littering, each offense.

public agency cost: YES spaceX: "nasa/10 cost" XD

So, let me get this straight: you designed a sample & return setup on the lander but did no have a clear plan for the return of the samples? And now you need help in getting the samples back home? How absurd. Have you tried calling Elon Musk?

Hang on. If that’s so difficult, what’s the chances of getting a human being there and back?

Not a single guy in that association administration meeting board🤔 so much for gender equality lmao

All i hear the administration saying is "We don't care if it succeeds we just want it to be cheap"...

The Chinese are doing a sample return soon, maybe see how that goes

They should not bring samples to earth. 🌙 Moon base or likely starship laboratory

All we need is for the Chinese space agency to announce they plan to do a Mars sample return mission first AND establish military installations on Mars, and just like that NASA will have all the government funding it needs for the next thirty years.

Pull some of the wasteful cash from King Newsom's California train to nowhere and build the return system. It would be a small budget inconvenience for the golden child.

It's funny how they get such the budget to spend and yet NASA of all companies and corporations, needs help. Does the monopoly really not have enough?

Could it be thermal erosions? Especially if water used to be present?

I really hope that Nasa timeline and price estimate included the usual 300+ percent cost overruns and the three time longer timeline delays too but probably not. ps. loved Mars Guy being cut off by the solar panels! very funny..

Pray to Jesus.

Apparently wars are more important than Science

I say we just put mars guy on a starship and have him go pickup the samples himself

Brillant, as always! Thank you Mr. Mars 😘

Stupid waste of time. Just eat mushrooms, like a normal person and that will get you to space, beyond the asteroid belt and that will be a great accomplishment, you need those one guys tho. 😢 😭 but I don't Mind them.

The "Hail Mary" pass begins on Earth (not Mars), which significantly determines the constrains for MSR (Mars Sample / Return) mission. I'm specifically referring to the rocket booster(s) that are required to launch the NASA and ESA spacecraft to Mars for MSR. The cost for these rocket boosters will likely be more than 50% of mission costs, but are hardly mentioned. or discussed! 🚀🙀 The odds are good that a reusable rocket (like FalconHeavy, Neutron, Starship, TerranR, etc) can place a larger mass in LEO at lower cost than any prior booster within the required timeframe. With ESA being a partner, their role needs to be negotiated to avoid geopolitical politics. As current strategy has ESA providing the critical MSR travel logistics. Worth noting, that ESA has instruments launching on Chang'e 6 from China in May (2024) which will collect the first lunar samples from the far-side of the moon. (Don't ask NASA's current director, as he's in the dark on lunar far-side matter. Sorry, bad pun. ;) A reminder that ESA can work with some spacefaring nations, that U.S. Congress has banned NASA conducting collaborations. Side note: China has reiterated in recent weeks that it has goals to to conduct a MSR mission in the 2030 timeframe, along with goal of a crewed lunar landing before 2030, and establishing a lunar base by 2040. Nothing like a little game of "space race" for added competition and motivation. ⚽✨🏁

I don't see a problem with our current technology being able to recover and inventory the core samples for return flight back to earth. Are they asking for new or newer technologies or a better recovery process?

Maybe the struggle was just a dispute on Devon Island about land rights.

Sounds designed to fail, NASA can do better than this. Or ask the Chinese, they’ll be there long before NASA figures out what went wrong.

Here's an idea - STOP giving open ending bottomless contracts to aerospace contractors that have NO intention of actually fulfilling their contract at any cost - it's just an endless check for the contractor with no realistic plan on making any of it happen.

Man, talk about a Rube Goldberg-type of mission! If any one part of the mission fails, the whole chain collapses. Who writes this stuff?

If NASA were to ask Elon Musk nicely, he might be willing to send those samples back home with the first returning StarShip. No I'm not kidding.

@ 4:05 MSR Independent review board - only women? No male is allowed to advance in science and technology anymore? DEI much? Just to decree it is "too expensive, too complex"? We spent a magnitude order more on war in a different country.