Exploring the High Cost of Sending a Mission to Mars to Collect Samples
The Mars Sample Return mission is a highly anticipated event in the space exploration community, and it is proving to be quite expensive as well. According to a report published by the European Space Agency (ESA), the mission has an estimated cost of at least €5 billion (about $6 billion). This is a significant jump from the €3.2 billion (about $4 billion) originally estimated for the mission. The mission, which would launch in 2023, would involve sending a spacecraft to Mars to collect samples of Martian soil and rocks, and then returning them to Earth for further study. The mission is seen as a crucial step in the search for evidence of past or present life on the Red Planet.
source: Phys.org