The rock, studied by NASA’s Perseverance Rover, has been closely analyzed by scientists on Earth who say that nonmicrobial processes could also explain the features.
Delays and concerns about NASA’s future budgets doomed the VIPER mission, which aimed to search for ice near the moon’s south pole.
At first, it was hard to tell whether something was really wrong with Rover. The 10-year-old yellow Lab had always been a bit of a loafer,...