Dr. Nick Fox, the director of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, told reporters, “We explore Mars as part of our ongoing efforts to safely send humans to explore farther and farther into the solar system while also kind of getting to the bottom of whether Mars once supported ancient life and shed life on the early solar system.”

NASA said in its announcement it is changing the plan for the spacecraft that will land on Mars to retrieve the samples and exploring two new, different options. One of the option