"NASA's interim leader Sean Duffy didn't make it through a single sentence in his announcement that the agency's Mars Perseverance rover had spotted "potential biosignatures" on the Red Planet last year without sucking up to president Donald Trump. While we're still far from a definitive conclusion about current or ancient life on Mars, it was an exciting finding, with a sampled rock containing minerals closely associated with Earth-based microbial life."
"The only problem? The Trump administration has made it clear that it's not interested in returning the samples taken by NASA's Perseverance rover back to Earth for laboratory analysis. The agency's Mars Sample Return mission had been a hot-button topic for years, with lawmakers balking at the proposed plan's astronomical price tag of $11 billion. But the Trump administration wants to nix the mission altogether in its potentially devastating 2026 budget proposal, alongside dozens of other planetary science missions."
The Perseverance rover collected a rock sample containing minerals closely associated with Earth-based microbial life, indicating potential biosignatures. The Mars Sample Return mission would retrieve those samples for detailed Earth laboratory analysis. The mission faces proposed cancellation in the 2026 budget due to an estimated $11 billion cost and congressional concerns about affordability. The administration is prioritizing crewed lunar and Martian initiatives that would be more complex and costly than an uncrewed sample return. NASA leadership declined to commit to returning the samples while conducting budget, timing, and technology assessments. Cancellation would prevent definitive laboratory follow-up on the Perseverance findings.
Read at Futurism
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]