NASA Seeks Cheaper Ideas for Mars Sample Return Mission Amid Budget Crunch

NASA Seeks Cheaper Ideas for Mars Sample Return Mission Amid Budget Crunch
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover is seen in a "selfie" that it took over a rock nicknamed "Rochette", on Sept. 10, 2021. NASA/JPL-CALTECH/MSSS/Handout via Reuters
Reuters
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LOS ANGELES—NASA is seeking a cheaper, simpler approach to one of its top science priorities in the midst of a budget crunch–retrieving precious soil samples collected on Mars and flying them back to Earth, U.S. space agency officials said on Monday.

A formal request for proposals will go out Tuesday to various NASA centers and laboratories, as well as to space industry companies, asking how to revamp a program mired in technical complexities, spending constraints, and ballooning costs, according to NASA executives.