Photo showing multiple vials of Martian samples left on the planet's surface.
A photo montage showing sample tubes shortly after they were deposited onto the surface by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover.

NASA is willing to consider proposals for revamping its Mars Sample Return program that would return as few as 10 sample tubes, a fraction of the number originally planned.

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Jeff Foust has more than a decade of experience writing about space policy, entrepreneurial ventures and regulatory affairs. In 2001, he established spacetoday.net to aggregate and summarize the day's space-related news stories. In 2003, he started The...