Experts push back against cancellation of NASA's Mars sample return project

An illustration of a Martian lander with hexagonal solar panels faced toward the top of the image and shooting off a small metal cylinder with a beam of yellow light headed for the top right of the image.

BOULDER, Colorado — The existing NASA-European Space Agency effort to establish a Mars Sample Return program is slated to be discontinued.

That's the word according to the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, a "minibus" legislative package passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Jan. 8. Next up is the Senate vote.