NASA rethinks plan to return rare Mars samples to Earth [Video]

NASA is seeking innovative methods that could help retrieve samples collected by the Perseverance rover on Mars in the future.The rover, which landed on Mars in February 2021, has been gathering specimens from Jezero Crater, where an ancient lake and river delta once existed on the red planet. Scientists believe the samples could help them better understand whether life ever existed on Mars.The original design for the Mars Sample Return program, a partnership between NASA and the European Space Agency, was a complex one. The architecture involved multiple missions launching from Earth to Mars to collect the samples, and then conducting the first rocket launch from the surface of another planet to return the samples to Earth.But there have been concerns about the program being too unwieldy due to complexity, expense and a delayed return date, which was originally expected to happen by 2031, but has been pushed after assessments …