NASA has awarded a contract to Rocket Lab to study alternative concepts for Mars Sample Return (MSR), joining several other efforts to improve the cost and schedule of the program.
Fingers crossed that they get the real contract. I love this proposal and think they could actually pull it off. I have way less trust in a company like Blue Origin stringing together a bunch of subcontractors to do it.
Note that this is just a “study contract” not a “sample return contract”. Still cool though!
I was pretty impressed when I heard this news.
Good work RocketLab
Fingers crossed that they get the real contract. I love this proposal and think they could actually pull it off. I have way less trust in a company like Blue Origin stringing together a bunch of subcontractors to do it.