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NASA has taken a significant step towards its ambitious $11 billion, 15-year Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission by awarding $1.5 million contracts to seven private companies. The goal is to explore innovative ways to collect and return samples from Mars.
The selected companies and their proposals are as follows:
These proposals were chosen to simplify and enhance NASA's current MSR mission, which involves complex components including the Perseverance rover and various spacecraft. An independent review recommended re-evaluating the mission design due to technical and financial concerns.
NASA is seeking less complex, cost-effective solutions to accelerate the timeline for returning Martian samples. The companies will begin work in July and finalize the study in October.