The space agency's Mars program suffered deep cuts in President Barack Obama's proposed 2013 budget, which was released in February. In response, NASA pulled out of European-led Mars missions in 2016 and 2018 and decided to reformulate its plans for robotically exploring the Red Planet.

Those plans, however they take shape, will continue to work toward finding evidence of extinct or extant Martians, agency officials announced today (April 13).

"Seeking the signs of life still remains the ultimate goal for all of us, frankly, and all these pieces fit within that theme," Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., told reporters today.