NASA’s plan to return Martian rocks is in trouble. Could these 7 companies help? [Video]

As the Perseverance rover rumbled over Mars terrain scoping out rocks, seven companies spent the summer trying to figure out how to help NASA bring its samples back to Earth. 

The U.S. space agency’s mission to return bits of rock, dust, and even air from the Red Planet, known as Mars Sample Return, is in trouble. An independent review found the unprecedented project would cost upward of $11 billion and take nearly two decades to accomplish. 

Problems with the mission’s management came at the worst possible time. Hundreds of scientists and engineers working on the project at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory lost their jobs, taking the brunt of NASA’s budget cuts over the past two years.

In a desperate plea, NASA announced that it would solicit proposalsfrom the aerospace industry, in addition to asking its other campuses, for input on how to save the mission. Then in June, NASA selected seven companies out …