NASA will explore two different strategies for fetching Mars rocks collected by the Perseverance rover, and there's a chance these samples contain evidence of alien life.

Dozens of samples of rock and sediment collected from Mars that could be used to detect ancient microbial life could be returned to Earth as soon as 2035 and as late as 2039, depending on the course of the next few months, NASA announced Tuesday.

NASA has arrived at two ways of returning samples collected on Mars to Earth. Now, the agency will test the options to see if the cache can make it back in the 2030s.