NASA: Will not decide on sample return plan from Mars until mid-2026

Science: NASA is considering two methods for bringing its precious Mars samples back to Earth, but the agency won’t choose a winner for another 18 months. Analysis of those samples, being collected by NASA’s Perseverance rover, could reveal a wealth of data about Mars and its history — including perhaps whether there was ever life on the Red Planet.

So NASA is eager to bring home the Mars material — about 30 cigar-shaped, sealed tubes containing rock cores and sediment — and then send it to laboratories around the world. But doing so has proven more difficult and far more expensive than originally imagined.

For example, in July 2020, the maximum total cost of the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission — a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) — was estimated to be about $3 billion. But just three years later, the expected price tag has risen to $8 billion to $11 billion. And even with that spending, the samples probably won’t reach Earth before 2040.

NASA recently deemed this situation unacceptable. In April 2024, agency chief Bill Nelson announced that the MSR strategy was being changed, saying NASA would seek new innovative ideas from its research centers, private industry and academia.

A few months later, the agency selected 11 MSR proposals from academic and industry groups for further development. Eight private groups received up to $1.5 million each to continue working on their ideas for the next 90 days.