NASA's beleaguered Mars Sample Return program currently faces extreme costs of up to $11 billion and a timeline that could reach 2040.

NASA recently succeeded at bringing to Earth a sample collected from a distant asteroid, and this week it will show off the material for the first time.

While NASA's Mars Sample Return initiative is in political hot water, China is moving ahead on plotting out its rendezvous with the Red Planet.

A sample from the asteroid Bennu, collected by the OSIRIS-REx mission, has arrived at London's Natural History Museum for analysis. Scientists are optimistic that it could contain the seeds of life.