NASA is exploring two potential strategies to bring Mars samples back to Earth, aiming to simplify and reduce the cost of the mission.

NASA hopes a revised plan will get Mars samples back to Earth faster and cost less than the agency's original plan.

NASA has proposed two new innovative ways to bring back critical samples from Mars to Earth by the 2030s. The proposals serve as alternatives to the original Mars Sample Return program, a joint NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) venture.

NASA said in its announcement it is changing the plan for the spacecraft that will land on Mars to retrieve the samples and exploring two new, different options. One of the option

The Perseverance rover has been collecting Martian rock samples since 2021, but NASA is still figuring out how to bring them back to Earth.

NASA announced Tuesday it had narrowed down to two options the reworked Mars Sample Return mission aiming for a cheaper and quicker completion than the version that was killed last year. One would be to use a version of the sky crane system that was used to land both the Mars rovers Perseverance and Curiosity safely on the Martian surface.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Nicky Fox, the agency's associate administrator for science missions, will host an audio-only media teleconference to update the public on the Mars Sample Return mission.