Mars Sample Return Mission Faces Trouble as NASA's JPL Lets Go of 530 Employees

(Photo : ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images) The entrance to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, is seen on February 7, 2024. JPL announced February 6, 2024, that over 500 employees, or eight percent of the workforce, will be laid off due to budgetary issues. JPL is a research and development lab federally funded by NASA and managed by Caltech

The proposed mission of NASA to return Martian samples that were taken by the Perseverance rover sees trouble as the agency has recently had mass layoffs.

Mass Layoffs in NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab

Due to budget cuts, the Jet Propulsion Lab of NASA is set to lay off 530 employees and around 40 contractors. This represents around 8% of the lab's workforce.

The layoffs of the agency kicked off last January, wherein JPL released a hundred contractors and implemented a freeze in hiring. This marks the start of the lab's effort to scale down its MSR mission ambitions.

The effects of such layoffs will affect the lab's support and technical areas. Laurie Leshin, the director of JPL, explains that, while these steps are painful, they are necessary for them to follow their budget allocation while continuing crucial work at NASA and for the country. Leshi explains that these cullings were because NASA's 2024 budget was not finalized by congressional leaders.

Lawmakers in California have been begging the agency to stop the JPL's continued bleeding. There was even a letter signed by a partisan group that protested the decision of the space agency to cut their spending even before the finalization of their budget.

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Mars Sample Return Trouble

This news comes as highly unfortunate for a mission that has already faced difficulties convincing lawmakers that spending around $8 to $11 billion is worth it.

In 2023, an independent review board tackled the "unrealistic" budget of the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, as well as its management failures and its extremely complex design. In the report, the board concluded that the probability of the many parts of the mission coming together in time for the launch date in 2028 was close to zero.

This comes in spite of how scientists argue that the project could yield great scientific value and advance the efforts of humanity to probe through the solar system and find any signs of life. However, with the remarkably reduced budget, the mission faces great trouble. Leaders are trying to stop the project from completely imploding.

NASA's MSR mission is a joint effort to be done with the European Space Agency. It is set to cover shooting samples gathered by the Perseverance Rover back into the orbit of Mars using a new lander. A separate craft will then pick them up and send it back to the planet in the 2030s.

The mission is not entirely dead. Though JPL still waits for the budget hammer to arrive, the director argued that they should streamline their operations in order to deliver their present missions, including the MSR. However, what the mission may look like remains unclear.