NASA Left 33 Samples on Mars and Has No Plan to Bring Them Back
The Daily Galaxy • • science
Key Points:
- NASA has canceled its Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission due to severe funding cuts by the U.S. Congress, ending over a decade of planning for the ambitious project to bring Martian rock samples back to Earth.
- The MSR mission involved a complex sequence of spacecraft, including a lander, helicopters, and an orbital return vehicle, to collect and return samples gathered by the Perseverance rover; many components were already in development before cancellation.
- Perseverance has collected 33 sealed sample tubes on Mars, now left stranded with no current plan for retrieval, though NASA has not ruled out future efforts to return them.
- NASA’s withdrawal opens the door for other nations, notably China, which is preparing its own
