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A comment on NASA’s Mars Sample Return has a new price tag–and it’s colossal. Parent comment

Re:NASA’s Mars Sample Return has a new price tag–and it’s co... by phkahler on Saturday June 24, 2023 @10:52AM (#36459164)
Agree 100 percent. But also why return the samples at all? Just send automated lab equipment to analyze it.
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Re:NASA’s Mars Sample Return has a new price tag–and it’s co... by cubefox on Saturday June 24, 2023 @11:05AM (#36459299)
The article says the utility from sending the samples back is indeed limited, at least compared to the cost, which would likely exceed the (already astronomical) JWST cost substantially.
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Re:NASA’s Mars Sample Return has a new price tag–and it’s co... by dotnet00 on Saturday June 24, 2023 @10:53AM (#36459175)
No amount of automated lab equipment is as flexible to work with as samples on Earth, for obvious reasons.
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Re:NASA’s Mars Sample Return has a new price tag–and it’s co... by idlewords on Saturday June 24, 2023 @04:07PM (#36462249)
There's no such thing as automated lab equipment that can analyze it. Even the space station has to send air and water samples down to Earth for anything beyond very rough analysis. You need technicians and a cleanroom environment to do this work.
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