Mars-Sample-Return Derailed: U.S. Bill Pins Hopes on China’s Mars Life Hunt
TL;DR
A U.S. spending bill effectively cancels NASA’s Mars Sample Return program, ending plans to bring Perseverance’s Martian rocks to Earth due to cost and schedule concerns (independently estimated around $11 billion). NASA will still fund related Mars-tech under the Mars Future Missions umbrella, but the race to return samples may now favor China, whose Tianwen-3 mission aims to collect rocks in 2028 and return them by 2031, potentially giving Beijing the lead in finding signs of life on Mars.
- NASA's Mars Sample Return is dead, leaving China to retrieve signs of life from the Red Planet Live Science
- A NASA Mission to Bring Samples From Mars Back to Earth Has Been Canceled ScienceAlert
- Congress saves NASA budget, kills Mars sample mission theregister.com
- Experts push back against cancellation of NASA's Mars sample return project Space
- Op-ed: Mars Sample Return May Be Canceled, But the Legal Questions It Leaves Behind Continue Payload Space
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