News NASA found intriguing rocks on Mars, so where does that leave Mars Sample Return?

[News]

"I have to look at dollars, and I have to look at time, and I have to look at return."


Interim NASA Administrator Sean Duffy provides remarks at a briefing prior to the Crew 11 launch in August. Credit: NASA

NASA's interim administrator Sean Duffy was fired up on Wednesday when he joined a teleconference to talk about new scientific findings that concerned the potential for life to have once existed on Mars.

"This is exciting news," said Duffy about an arrow-shaped rock on Mars found by NASA's Perseverance rover. The rock contained chemical signatures and structures that could have been formed by ancient microbial life. The findings were intriguing, but not conclusive. Further study of the rocks in an advanced lab on Earth might prove more definitive.

Duffy was ready, he said, to discuss the scientific results along with NASA experts on the call with reporters. However, the very first question—and for any space reporter, the obvious one—concerned NASA's on-again, off-again plan to return rocks from the surface of Mars for study on Earth. This mission, called Mars Sample Return, has been on hold for nearly two years after an independent analysis found that NASA's bloated plan would cost at least $8 billion to $11 billion. President Trump has sought to cancel it outright.

Duffy faces the space press


"What's the latest on NASA's plans to retrieve the samples from Perseverance?" asked Marcia Dunn, a reporter with the Associated Press, about small vials of rocks collected by the NASA rover on Mars.

"So listen, we're looking at how we get this sample back, or other samples back," Duffy replied. "What we're going to do is look at our budget, so we look at our timing, and you know, how do we spend money better? And you know, what technology do we have to get samples back more quickly? And so that's a current analysis that's happening right now."

A couple of questions later, Ken Chang, a science reporter with The New York Times, asked Duffy why President Trump's budget request called for the cancellation of Mars Sample Return and whether that was still the president's intent.

"I want to be really clear," Duffy replied. "This is a 30-year process that NASA has undertaken. President Trump didn't say, 'Hey, let's forget about Mars.' No, we're continuing our exploration. And by the way, we've been very clear under this president that we don't want to just bring samples back from Mars. We want to send our boots to the Moon and to Mars, and that is the work that we're doing. Amit (Kshatriya, the new Associate Administrator of NASA) even said maybe we'll send our equipment to test this sample to Mars itself. All options are on the table."


So that was a couple of questions asking about a robotic Mars Sample Return mission, which, under NASA's most recent plan, was slated to launch no earlier than 2030. Duffy still offered no real answers beyond a vague we're looking at it. Since China now says it will launch a Mars sample return mission in 2028, I asked Duffy a few minutes later whether this administration was comfortable with its geopolitical rival achieving such a spaceflight feat first.

"First, Eric, I love you guys all asking me questions," Duffy replied. "We got some of the brightest people at NASA with us. I'll take them. I was hoping your questions are going to be more on, you know, more on this exciting news that we have today. But you know, listen, we're running our plan. We're making the right calls for America and for our partners. And again, we lead, and we are going to continue to lead, but it's always important that we keep pushing. We have to push because we are in another space race. I want to make sure we're making the right decisions, right, and I have to look at dollars, and I have to look at time, and I have to look at return. And as we do that, we thought, well, there could be a better way to do this, to get these samples back."

Duffy should not be surprised that reporters were addressing questions directly to him. Since he was named as interim NASA administrator (a former Congressman, Duffy is also currently the US Secretary of Transportation) on July 9, Duffy has participated in no NASA news conferences, and outside of appearances on Fox News, has conducted a very limited number of interviews. So it is natural that, during his first appearance before reporters, he received a majority of the questions.

So what is likely to happen?


Duffy is not wrong that a new leader of NASA should be reviewing the agency's decisions, especially in light of the competition between the United States and China, to ensure taxpayers are getting a great return on their investment in the US space agency.


What does seem clear after this week is that, despite a line in the president's budget request for fiscal year 2026 calling for the cancellation of NASA's Mars Sample Return mission, Duffy is open to negotiating with Congress about the best path forward. But he's not ready to talk about it yet. However, based upon discussions with several sources, there appear to be three potential paths that NASA is considering:

1. Commercial: Of the two options presented in January 2025, NASA could follow the second one, in which the agency would "capitalize on using new commercial capabilities to deliver the lander payload to the surface of Mars." My sources indicate the first option, to leverage "previously flown" technology, is dead. Basically, there would be a commercial partnership, similar to COTS, in which NASA bought a sample return service designed and offered by one or a team of private companies.
2. Prize: NASA could offer a prize—say $3 billion to the first company and $1 billion to a second company—for delivering something like 1 kg of Mars rocks and soil back to Earth. NASA has used prizes very sparingly in the past, but this option could appeal to the Trump administration as it would require very little funding up front.
3. Humans: Duffy could say something like, "We are not sending a robot to pick up rocks on Mars when we plan to land humans there in a decade." This would effectively cancel any robotic plan with the hope that a human mission will materialize in the not-too-distant future.

It has already been a turbulent year for the Trump administration and NASA's science programs. The White House, NASA, and Congress already face a host of thorny questions about the future of more than two dozen science missions. The White House wants to essentially turn off a number of spacecraft already operating in space. It has also sought to cut funding for the Perseverance rover, which made this significant discovery.

Because of these pending fights, it seems like a resolution on Mars Sample Return may not come for some time.