WASHINGTON — A blue-ribbon panel chartered to help NASA reboot its robotic Mars Exploration Program outlined several approaches Sept. 25 for returning samples from the red planet to Earth but did not endorse any one plan.

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Dan Leone is the NASA reporter for SpaceNews, where he also covers other civilian-run U.S. government space programs and a growing number of entrepreneurial space companies. He joined SpaceNews in 2011.Dan earned a bachelor's degree in public communications...