Science Quickly Can NASA Deliver on Perseverance’s Promise to Reveal Life on Mars?
Dec 10, 2025
Lee Billings, a senior editor at Scientific American and expert in planetary science, discusses the NASA Perseverance rover's mission to uncover ancient life on Mars. He explains the significance of returning samples to Earth from the intriguing Jezero Crater. The conversation delves into the challenges facing the sample-return effort, including technical issues and funding. Billings also highlights promising findings, such as organic-rich mudstone that hints at past microbial activity and explores commercial alternatives that could reduce costs for future missions.
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Perseverance Is Only Half The Mission
- Perseverance collected 43 sealed sample tubes but cannot return them to Earth by itself.
- Mars Sample Return is a separate, complex phase requiring new hardware and missions to retrieve the cache.
Jezero Chosen After Decades Of Planning
- NASA selected Jezero Crater after narrowing down candidate sites decades in the making.
- Perseverance landed there via a dramatic sky crane descent and began targeted sampling.
Why Mars Still Captivates Scientists
- Mars is compelling because ancient environments there resembled early Earth with flowing water and thicker atmosphere.
- Finding an independent origin of life on Mars would imply life arises easily in habitable conditions.