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An ancient rock discovered on Mars, using equipment partially developed in New Mexico, could answer key questions scientists have about the possibility of past life on the planet.

But the sample could be stuck on Mars if President Donald Trump鈥檚 proposed budget for NASA goes through. The would entirely defund the Mars sample mission.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 know what the future of that mission is going to be,鈥� said Nina Lanza, a Los Alamos National Laboratory researcher and leader on the mission, in a legislative meeting Tuesday in Los Alamos. 鈥淚鈥檓 going to cross my fingers and hope that other lawmakers will agree with me that this is really an important next step. This is sort of what we鈥檝e been aiming to do, to learn about Mars since we studied Mars from the very beginning.鈥�

LANL has played a key role in the research into life on Mars, particularly with the Curiosity Rover NASA launched in 2011 and the Perseverance Rover launched in 2020. LANL helped develop space instrumentation on the rovers used for gathering data.

Last year, NASA discovered a rock with a potential biosignature, which could indicate ancient life, but scientists need to bring the samples back to Earth to more closely study the materials, Lanza said.

But a refocusing of NASA in Trump鈥檚 federal budget proposal would take away the money to make that happen. In of his budgetary requests, despite including $1 billion in new investments for 鈥淢ars-focused programs,鈥� the proposed budget would terminate 鈥渕ultiple unaffordable missions and reduces lower priority research.鈥�

Lanza disagreed with the characterization that the Mars sample mission is low priority. She cited NASA conducts every 10 years to assess planetary priorities, which resulted in space experts finding that 鈥渢he highest scientific priority of NASA鈥檚 robotic exploration efforts this decade should be completion of Mars Sample Return as soon as is practicably possible with no increase or decrease in its current scope.鈥�

This would be the first time any type of rock has been returned to Earth from Mars, Lanza said.

Cost estimates to return the samples range around $10 billion, Lanza said. For context, she said, the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers each cost about $2 billion to deploy.

The high price has to do with the complexity of the return mission, Lanza said. She explained that NASA could launch a spacecraft with two components, with one part orbiting around Mars and the other landing to actually get the samples. She added that the agency has floated ideas about using the Perseverance Rover to collect the samples, though experts didn鈥檛 design the rover with that in mind.

鈥淚t鈥檚 really hard to get a spacecraft from Earth to Mars successfully, and it鈥檚 even harder to get it back successfully,鈥� she said.

Should the funding come through, Lanza estimated NASA could return the sample to Earth within a decade. The actual transport of the samples from Mars to Earth would take less than a few weeks, she added.

鈥淲e, collectively as a community, could do it. We just have to decide that鈥檚 how NASA鈥檚 resources will be spent,鈥� she said.