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.

NASA, together with the European Space Agency, has had an ambitious plan. Collecting samples of Martian soil and rocks, putting them in a spacecraft, attempting the first rocket launch from another planet, catching it in orbit, and sending it back to Earth where it will crash land (safer than using a parachute). Maybe calling it ambitious doesn’t cut it. None of that has been attempted before, and as is often the case with mighty things, there have been many unexpected challenges.

The costs for the whole endeavor have been underestimated and the schedule, which would have seen it happen in a few years, has been deemed unrealistic in a review in 2023. Last year, a new plan was sought to better tackle this revolutionary project, and hopefully, this is what NASA plans to announce tomorrow, January 7.

The media briefing will begin at 1 pm EST (6 pm GMT), and you’ll be able to listen in online via NASA’s website.

“The briefing will include NASA’s efforts to complete its goals of returning scientifically selected samples from Mars to Earth while lowering cost, risk, and mission complexity,” a press announcement of the media conference stated.

Nelson has previously acknowledged the issues at a public announcement, saying: “Mars Sample Return will be one of the most complex missions NASA has ever undertaken. The bottom line is, an $11 billion budget is too expensive, and a 2040 return date is too far away.”

Cheaper and sooner would be the best solution. Can NASA pull it off? We’ll have to wait and see what they are going to announce tomorrow.