"China's Mars Sample Return Mission Advances as NASA Faces Challenges"

China's Mars sample return mission, Tianwen-3, is progressing smoothly with all key technologies in place, aiming to collect Martian rocks and bring them back to Earth around 2030, while NASA's Mars Sample Return (MSR) project has faced budget uncertainty, technical readiness issues, and potential spending cuts, leading to delays and layoffs. China's mission is more likely to be limited to collecting and retrieving materials within the immediate reach of the lander, while the US, India, and Europe also have upcoming missions to Mars, but not designed to retrieve samples.