Mars Recovers from First Recessionary Event

On 7 December 2022, we documented the birth of the Martian economy and estimated the planet’s GDP. Six Earth months and just over one Martian quarter later, we’re ready to revisit the Red Planet to find how things have changed.

And change they have, because in between then and now, Mars’ economy experienced its first recession-like event. After collecting its sixth cored rock sample on 29 December 2022 and putting it into inventory, the Perseverance rover ran into a technical problem that prevented it from collecting more samples, effectively suspending economic activity on the planet. Here’s the story from NASA’s press release:

On Wednesday, Dec. 29 (sol 306) Perseverance successfully cored and extracted a sample from a Mars rock. Data downlinked after the sampling indicates that coring of the rock the science team nicknamed Issole went smoothly. However, during the transfer of the bit that contains the sample into the rover’s bit carousel (which stores bits and passes tubes to the tube processing hardware inside the rover), our sensors indicated an anomaly. The rover did as it was designed to do – halting the caching procedure and calling home for further instructions.

NASA subsequently determined that rocky debris from its latest core sample blocked the rover’s drilling equipment from seating properly, taking it out of action until it might be cleared. Here’s a photo of the debris, which you can see at the bottom of the rover’s drilling bit carousel:

It took almost a full Earth month to do it, but NASA’s engineers succeeded in ejecting the debris from the bit carousel, allowing the rover to continue its rock core sample collecting mission. The rover would proceed to collect its seventh rock core sample on 8 March 2022 after traveling to its location in Mars’ Jezero Crater. One week later, the rover collected its eighth sample that will someday be exported to Earth.

Since then, NASA engineers directed the Perseverance rover to travel to a new location in an ancient river delta within the crater to scout where it might collect additional rock samples. It has not collected more as of the end of the Martian quarter.

That brings us to the first revision of Mars GDP for its first quarter and the first estimate of its GDP in its second economic quarter.

We find our first estimate of Mars’ quarterly GDP missed the collection of the fourth sample on 24 November 2021, so we need to adjust the estimate to account for it. We find Mars’ GDP in its first economic quarter would fall in a range between $88,624 and $702,464. That range is up from the previously estimated range of $66,468 to $526,848.

Having added four samples to those original four in Mars’ second quarter, we estimate the red planet’s GDP will likewise fall between $88,624 and $702,464. With NASA engineers making a concerted effort to be more discriminating in selecting rock samples to core and store for future export to Earth, we think Mars’ GDP will run to the higher end of that range.

We should also point out that had the debris issue not arisen and required a month to resolve, the Perseverance rover might have already collected its ninth rock sample. Martian GDP has fallen below its potential GDP for the first time.

If you’re curious how Mars’ future export economy will work, the following video explains what planetary scientists have in mind:

Back on Earth, NASA selected Lockheed Martin to develop the rockets that will be sent to Mars to collect the rock samples currently held in inventory by the Perseverance rover on the planet’s surface on 7 February 2022.

Previously on Political Calculations

• The Birth of the Martian Economy
• Meanwhile, on Mars…

Postscript

Just because it’s cool, here’s video of a solar eclipse as seen from the surface of Mars involving its moon Phobos!