NASA has launched the new year with a groundbreaking announcement: It is advancing plans to bring Martian samples to Earth. For four years, the Perseverance rover has been collecting Martian regolith, but escalating costs in the Mars Sample Return (MSR) program slowed progress. NASA has narrowed down two potential ways to go in 2025 after evaluating several strategies.
NASA had originally intended to use a Mars lander with a rocket to bring the samples back to the Moon, where they would be collected, and then returned to Earth. But this complex strategy came with a $11 billion price tag and a projected 2040 return date — ‘simply unacceptable,’ NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said.
NASA convened the Mars Sample Return Strategic Review team to analyze cost-effective and efficient alternatives to devise a more viable approach. Two promising strategies were proposed by the team. The first is NASA’s successful “sky crane” architecture used to land Curiosity in 2012 and Perseverance in 2021. Descent is made using a heat shield, parachute, and retrorockets, and the spacecraft is delivered gently to the surface by a cable-based delivery system. Direct Earth return would be possible with this simpler approach, lowering costs and risks.
The second strategy is to partner with commercial aerospace giants like SpaceX or Blue Origin. If these companies were able to design innovative retrieval systems, the samples could arrive by 2035 for $5.8–$7.1 billion. NASA hopes to make its final choice by late 2026. Perseverance’s mission will attempt to bring back 30 of the 43 titanium sample tubes it carries, which could change the way we understand Mars.
Nicky Fox, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate leader, said: “These samples will transform our knowledge of Mars and our solar system.” Ultimately, the mission’s timeline will be determined by Congress’ funding pace.