NASA's Mars sample return plan is getting a major overhaul: 'The bottom line is $11 billion is too expensive'

Illustration of a rover and a lander on the surface of mars, with a small helicopter, a rocket and a satellite in the sky above them.

NASA is looking for a new way to get its precious Mars samples back to Earth.

Those samples are being collected by the Perseverance rover in Mars' Jezero Crater, which hosted a lake and a river delta billions of years ago. Getting ahold of the samples is one of NASA's top science goals; studying pristine Red Planet material in well-equipped labs around the world could reveal key insights about Mars — including, perhaps, whether it has ever hosted life, NASA officials say.