Mars Sample Return

Was Mars Sample Return cancelled?

In effect, yes, though the official documents say “terminate” and “does not support”. NASA’s budget request for fiscal 2026 said the agency “plans to terminate the Mars Sample Return Program given that current architecture options remain unaffordable.”[14] Congress agreed. The joint explanatory statement for the FY2026 spending law says on page 54: “As proposed in the budget, the agreement does not support the existing Mars Sample Return (MSR) program.”[17] The law, Public Law 119-74, was signed on Jan 23, 2026.[16]

It could have gone the other way. In July 2025, House appropriators wrote $300 million for the mission into their draft bill; the Senate committee’s report didn’t mention it.[15] The final agreement followed the budget request instead. NASA’s own web page now describes Mars Sample Return in the past tense, as “a proposed multi-mission campaign by NASA and ESA.”[1]

A little money is still attached to the name. NASA’s spending plan for fiscal 2026, dated July 2026, lists $35.0 million on a “Mars Sample Return” line without saying what it pays for.[19] NASA’s budget request for fiscal 2027, published in April 2026, has no Mars Sample Return line at all.[20]

What was Mars Sample Return?

A campaign of several spacecraft to collect the samples Perseverance has been gathering and fly them to Earth. In NASA’s plan, a landerLanderA lander touches down on Mars and works from one spot, unlike a rover, which drives.More in the glossary would set down near Perseverance’s landing site in Jezero Crater, and the rover would bring its samples to it. A robotic arm would load the tubes into a capsule on a small rocket, the Mars Ascent Vehicle, which would launch into Mars orbit. Another spacecraft would catch the capsule there and bring it home.[1][4][9] NASA said the mission would include the first launch from the surface of another planet and the first rendezvous in orbit around another planet.[5]

The catcher was Europe’s part. ESA was designing the Earth Return Orbiter, about 7 metric tons (15,400 lb), to be the first spacecraft to fly a round trip between Earth and Mars.[21] NASA’s January 2025 revision kept that split: a smaller ascent rocket on a lander powered by a radioisotope power system instead of solar panels, a container holding 30 sample tubes, and ESA’s orbiter to bring it back.[9]

How many samples has Perseverance collected?

30 of its 38 sample tubes, by NASA’s count. Perseverance carried 43 tubes to Mars: 38 for samples and five “witness tubes” that record how clean its sampling system is. Three witness tubes have been sealed.[2] NASA’s list gives sealing dates for 28 samples. The two newest, “Bell Island” and “Gallants”, are listed as “TBD”, and NASA says the Bell Island tube was left unsealed on purpose.[2]

Ten tubes lie on the ground at a depot called “Three Forks”, the first sample depot on another world. Perseverance laid them out between Dec 21, 2022 and Jan 28, 2023, about 5 to 15 m (15 to 50 ft) apart, as a backup set.[3][4] Nine hold samples, most of them one half of a pair whose twin stayed in the rover; the tenth is a witness tube.[2][3] That leaves 21 filled sample tubes inside Perseverance, by our count of NASA’s list.[2]

One of them stands out. “Sapphire Canyon” was drilled from a rock called “Cheyava Falls” and sealed on Jul 21, 2024.[2] NASA says the sample has potential biosignatures: chemical compounds and minerals that together may have been formed by past microbial life.[20] Our page Is there life on Mars? explains what that does and doesn’t mean.

Why was Mars Sample Return cancelled?

Because its cost kept rising while its return date slipped. An independent review board reported in September 2023 that the planned 2027 and 2028 launches had a “near zero probability” of being met and put the program’s likely cost at $8 billion to $11 billion.[5][6] In April 2024, NASA said that with expected budgets, the design of the day would return samples in 2040. “The bottom line is, an $11 billion budget is too expensive, and a 2040 return date is too far away,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.[7]

NASA looked for cheaper ideas. It ordered 11 studies, from NASA centers, JPL, the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and eight companies, among them SpaceX, Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin and Rocket Lab.[8] In January 2025 it said it would pursue two landing options and settle on a design in the second half of 2026.[9] Before that, on May 2, 2025, the White House’s budget request proposed ending the mission, calling it “grossly overbudget” and saying its goals “would be achieved by human missions to Mars.”[12][13]

Whole-program cost estimates, not money spent. NASA officials gave the January 2025 figures on Jan 7, 2025, as reported by Space.com and SpacePolicyOnline. Rocket Lab’s figure is the company’s own.[6][7][10][11][25]

Budget authority, from NASA’s budget documents and the FY2026 joint explanatory statement.[14][17][19][20]

What happened to ESA’s Earth Return Orbiter?

ESA’s chief said in January 2026 that, under current plans, the mission will not go ahead. In January 2026, ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said: “we understand that, at least according to today’s plans, the mission will not go ahead, so we are evaluating ESA’s contribution to it.” ESA’s exploration director, Daniel Neuenschwander, said “Europe cannot afford, on its own, a full Mars Sample Return mission.”[22]

ESA proposed reusing the orbiter for a one-way mission to study the Martian atmosphere.[23][22] Europe’s top Mars priority remains the Rosalind Franklin rover, targeted for launch in 2028.[22]

Will the samples ever come back?

Maybe, but no mission is funded to fetch them. NASA’s April 2026 budget request says that “subsequent missions could retrieve the sealed samples collected by Perseverance” and return them to Earth.[20] Congress’s FY2026 agreement provides $110 million for a “Mars Future Missions” program, “including existing MSR efforts,” for radar, spectroscopy, entry, descent and landing systems and other technology for future Moon and Mars missions.[17] From that line, NASA said in April 2026 that it would ask for proposals in October 2026 for a low-cost Mars mission to launch in 2030, costing $220 million plus launch.[20]

Companies have pitched ideas, but none is a mission. SpaceX’s 2024 study for NASA was called “Enabling Mars Sample Return With Starship”; Blue Origin’s was “Leveraging Artemis for Mars Sample Return.”[8] Rocket Lab offered to do the whole job for a fixed $4 billion, its own estimate.[25]

Japan’s MMX is a sample returnSample returnA sample return mission collects rock, soil or dust from another world and brings it back to Earth to study in labs.More in the glossary mission too, but to Mars’s moon Phobos. NASA expects it to bring Phobos samples home in the early 2030s.[20]

What is China’s Tianwen-3?

China’s planned Mars sample return mission, which the China National Space Administration (CNSA) says will launch around 2028 and bring samples to Earth around 2031. Those dates are China’s targets. Tianwen-3 has five parts: a lander, an ascent vehicle, a service module, an orbiter and a return module. In April 2026 CNSA picked five payloads for it from Hong Kong, Macao and foreign institutes.[24]

NASA’s 2023 review board noted China’s Tianwen-3 plans and wrote: “These plans challenge the USA’s technical, engineering, and scientific leadership in Mars exploration.”[6] House appropriators also pointed to China’s plan in 2025.[15]

Mission timeline

1. Aug 6, 2021Perseverance seals its first sample tube, an atmospheric sample. Its first rock core follows on Sep 6.[2]
2. Jan 28, 2023The 10-tube depot at Three Forks is complete.[3]
3. Sep 21, 2023NASA releases the independent review: $8–11 billion, with the planned 2027 and 2028 launches out of reach.[5][6]
4. Apr 15, 2024NASA calls an $11 billion cost and a 2040 return too expensive and too slow, and asks for new ideas.[7]
5. Jun 7, 2024NASA picks industry studies; Rocket Lab is added on Oct 8.[8]
6. Jul 21, 2024Perseverance seals the “Sapphire Canyon” sample.[2]
7. Jan 7, 2025NASA announces two landing options, with a decision due in the second half of 2026.[9]
8. May 2, 2025The White House budget request proposes ending the mission.[12][13]
9. Jan 8, 2026The House passes the FY2026 spending bill, 397–28.[16][18]
10. Jan 15, 2026The Senate passes it, 82–15.[18]
11. Jan 23, 2026The bill becomes law, without support for Mars Sample Return.[16][17]
12. Around 2028China’s target for launching Tianwen-3.[24]
13. Around 2031China’s target for Tianwen-3’s samples to reach Earth.[24]

Sources

1. NASA Science — Mars Sample ReturnPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
2. NASA Science — Mars Rock SamplesPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
3. NASA — NASA’s Perseverance Rover Completes Mars Sample DepotPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
4. NASA Science — Perseverance’s ‘Three Forks’ Sample Depot MapPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
5. NASA — NASA Releases Independent Review’s Mars Sample Return ReportPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
6. NASA — Mars Sample Return (MSR) Independent Review Board-2 Final ReportPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
7. NASA — NASA Sets Path to Return Mars Samples, Seeks Innovative DesignsPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
8. NASA — NASA Exploring Alternative Mars Sample Return MethodsPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
9. NASA — NASA to Explore Two Landing Options for Returning Samples from MarsPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
10. Space.com — NASA won’t decide on overhaul for Mars Sample Return mission until mid-2026Secondary · checked Oct 6, 2026
11. SpacePolicyOnline — NASA Will Finalize Mars Sample Return Architecture Next YearSecondary · checked Oct 6, 2026
12. NASA — Fiscal Year 2026 Budget RequestPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
13. NASA / Office of Management and Budget — Fiscal Year 2026 Discretionary Budget Request (NASA excerpts)Primary · checked Oct 6, 2026
14. NASA — FY 2026 Budget Technical Supplement (Mars Sample Return, PS-50)Primary · checked Oct 6, 2026
15. SpacePolicyOnline — Mars Sample Return Gets a Lifeline from House AppropriatorsSecondary · checked Oct 6, 2026
16. GovInfo — Public Law 119-74 (H.R. 6938, FY2026 appropriations)Primary · checked Oct 6, 2026
17. House Appropriations Committee — Division A – Commerce, Justice, Science: Joint Explanatory Statement (MSR, p. 54)Primary · checked Oct 6, 2026
18. Senate Appropriations Committee — Congress Approves FY 2026 Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations BillPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
19. NASA — FY 2026 Spending Plan for Appropriations Provided by P.L. 119-74Primary · checked Oct 6, 2026
20. NASA — Fiscal Year 2027 Full Budget Request (Mars Exploration, PS-48 to PS-50)Primary · checked Oct 6, 2026
21. ESA — Earth Return Orbiter – the first round-trip to MarsPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
22. Aerospace America (AIAA) — European Space Agency rethinks Mars plans as it kicks off a mission-dense 2026Secondary · checked Oct 6, 2026
23. ESA — CM25 – Explore and discoverPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
24. China National Space Administration (CNSA) — China celebrates Space Day with a sneak peek at Tianwen 3's tech (Apr 24, 2026, from China Daily)Primary · checked Oct 6, 2026
25. The Planetary Society — Space Policy Edition: Mars Sample Return, but at what (fixed) price?Secondary · checked Oct 6, 2026