NASA presents two new plans in the race to return samples from Mars to Earth

Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. NASA/JPL-Caltech Journey from the Martian surface Mars Sample Return is humanity’s first mission to bring scientific samples from a habitable planet back to Earth, Fox said. “Pursuing two potential paths forward will ensure that NASA is able to bring these samples back from Mars with significant cost and schedule saving compared to the previous plan,” Nelson said. “These samples have the potential to change the way we understand Mars, our universe, and — ultimately — ourselves.” This illustration for the original concept of Mars Sample Return shows multiple robots that would team up to ferry samples to Earth from the red planet. “But I think it was a responsible thing to do to not hand the new administration just one alternative if they want to have a Mars sample return, which I can’t imagine that they don’t,” Nelson said.