NASA eyes SpaceX, Blue Origin to cut Mars rock retrieval costs [Video]

NASA announced Tuesday it may turn to Elon Musk’s SpaceX or Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin to help reduce the soaring costs of returning Martian rocks collected by the Perseverance rover to Earth.

Originally planned to deliver 30 sample tubes to Earth by the 2030s, the Mars Sample Return mission has faced rising expenses and delays, prompting the US space agency to explore more streamlined solutions.

The pivot comes as China progresses towards a simpler “grab-and-go” sample return mission to the Red Planet “around 2028,” according to state media, potentially making it the first nation to achieve the feat.

Outgoing NASA Administrator Bill Nelson revealed Tuesday that the agency is evaluating two potential architectures for landing a robotic platform on Mars, with a final decision expected in mid-2026.

The first option uses NASA’s tried-and-true Sky Crane system, a robotic jetpack that famously lowered the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers onto the Martian …