NASA is pitching a cheaper and quicker way of getting rocks and soil back from Mars. Administrator Bill Nelson presented two options on Tuesday, less than two weeks before stepping down as NASA's chief.

Previously, the Mars Sample Return mission had been estimated to cost around 11 billion dollars and would not return a sample until the 2040's, noted Nelson, who said a re-evaluation of the mission had to be done because "this thing had gotten out of control."

We may be about to discover the fate of the Mars samples collected by NASA's Perseverance rover. On Tuesday, January 7 at 1:00 pm EST, NASA administrator Bill Nelson and associate administrator Nicky Fox are going to provide an update to the mission left in limbo.

The Labour safeguarding minister branded Elon Musk's claims about her "ridiculous" and said she will not be silenced.

Elon Musk has taken aim at NASA for focusing on exploring the Moon rather than launching missions to Mars. The Red Planet has long been a primary goal for the SpaceX CEO, who hopes to establish a human colony there within his lifetime.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is calling for NASA to ditch its Moon program, arguing that the "Moon is a distraction" and that "we're going straight to Mars" instead in a recent tweet. In a separate tweet on Christmas Day,