Space travel is never cheap, but...

[SUGGESTION]
I'm wondering if ESA goes through with this MSR mission to collect
Mars dust, they could then sell-off packaged samples of Mars dust
to the highest bidder?

(a) One milligram packages of Mars-dust for perhaps "one-million Euros", each.
(b) ESA sells 10,000 packages, each with 1.0 milligram of Mars dust
[total Mars dust for sale: 10 grams].
*(Additional grams of Mars dust would belong to qualified European scientists for research.)

(c) 10,000 packages [1.0 mm] x 1,000,000 Euros/package = 10 billion Euros.

10 Billion Euros would pay for a very ambitious ESA planetary program, including
a core-drilling MSR mission.

It's just a suggestion. It might be worth mentioning to ESA officials.

Jacob

"We choose to go to the moon, and do those OTHER THINGS, no because they are easy,
but because they are hard."
John F. Kennedy