Two new potential strategies for returning crucial samples from Mars to Earth by the 2030s are now on the table, according to NASA. The proposals present alternatives to the original Mars Sample Return program.

NASA hopes a revised plan will get Mars samples back to Earth faster and cost less than the agency's original plan.

NASA recently deemed this situation unacceptable. In April 2024, agency chief Bill Nelson announced that an overhaul of the MSR strategy is in the works, saying that NASA will seek innovative new ideas from its research centers, private industry and academia.

The Perseverance rover has been collecting Martian rock samples since 2021, but NASA is still figuring out how to bring them back to Earth.

NASA announced Tuesday it had narrowed down to two options the reworked Mars Sample Return mission aiming for a cheaper and quicker completion than the version that was killed last year. One would be to use a version of the sky crane system that was used to land both the Mars rovers Perseverance and Curiosity safely on the Martian surface.

The space agency will provide a broadcast update on the marquee mission that is intended to recover samples of Martian rock for study on Earth.

We may be about to discover the fate of the Mars samples collected by NASA's Perseverance rover. On Tuesday, January 7 at 1:00 pm EST, NASA administrator Bill Nelson and associate administrator Nicky Fox are going to provide an update to the mission left in limbo.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Nicky Fox, the agency's associate administrator for science missions, will host an audio-only media teleconference to update the public on the Mars Sample Return mission.