NASA is making a big announcement about Mars TODAY – here’s what we expect to hear about the Red Planet

NASA is preparing to make a big announcement today that could reveal the future of America’s next mission to Mars.

The Mars Return Sample (MRS) aims to return Martian soil to Earth, but the mission’s progress has been uncertain since a damning report last year criticized its ‘unrealistic budget’.

However, today’s announcement has raised hopes that NASA could unveil the timeline and budget for the next phase of this challenging science mission.

Excitingly, NASA says the samples could finally help answer one of the biggest remaining questions in space exploration: whether or not there is life beyond Earth.

NASA said: ‘The return of the samples will also help NASA search for signs of ancient life.’

At 6:00 PM BST (1:00 PM EDT), the US space agency will host a media teleconference on the MRS mission.

You can follow MailOnline’s coverage for all the updates as they happen, or watch the announcement live NASA TV Live.

The MRS mission began in February 2021 when NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on the surface of Mars.

Since then, Perseverance has traveled around Jezero Crater with the Ingenuity Mars helicopter to collect rock samples.

The original plan was for NASA to send a secondary lander to collect Ingenuity’s samples and return them to Earth for analysis.

These samples are believed to be of extremely high scientific value and could help scientists discover what the weather and climate on Mars would have been like in the distant past.

NASA said: ‘NASA’s Perseverance rover is collecting compelling scientific samples that will help scientists understand Mars’ geological history and climate evolution, and prepare for future human explorers.

It said: The sample’s return will also help NASA search for signs of ancient life.’

Currently, Perseverance has collected 24 samples from the Earth’s surface, including 21 rock cores, two samples of regolith and one atmospheric sample.

Most of these samples are kept on Perseverance, including those considered to have the highest value, but a number of other samples are also cached nearby.

However, the mission has been on shaky ground since last year after it was destroyed by a damning independent report.

This criticized the MSR for having an ‘unrealistic budget and planning expectations’ from the start.

The report’s authors also wrote that the mission “is not designed to be effectively led.”

This was almost immediately followed by significant budget cuts for NASA to be removed from the MSR mission.

The Senate and House of Representatives Appropriations Committees approved a new budget, which included a $454,080,000 (£364,190,323) reduction for the mission.

NASA’s original timeline suggested a spacecraft launch as early as 2027, followed by a lander in 2028.

According to this timeline, the monsters would return to Earth in 2033, but it is not yet known how this will be affected by the reduced budget.

Today, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Nicky Fox, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, will provide the first update on the status of the project.

It is hoped that their announcement will outline a plan to meet the existing timeline, although no details have yet been released.

At the time of the report’s publication, NASA said it would recommend “a path forward for Mars Sample Return within a balanced overall science program.”

The space agency also said it would delay confirming the mission’s final budget and schedule until the review was completed.

With NASA now convening a conference to discuss the mission, it’s possible we’ll see the first concrete details of the next mission to Mars.

If so, it would mark a significant step forward for the agency’s ambitions for the planet.