May 4, 2024

Mars Sample Return Mission: Bringing Mars Rock Samples Back to Earth [Video]

NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are planning ways to bring the very first samples of Mars material back to Earth for detailed study. The Mars Perseverance rover is the first leg of this global interplanetary relay team. Its task is to collect and cache samples on Mars.

This brief animation functions key minutes of NASA and ESAs Mars Sample Return project, from landing on Mars and securing the sample tubes to launching them off the surface and ferrying them back to Earth. Credit: NASA/ESA/JPL-Caltech/ GSFC/MSFC.
NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are preparing methods to bring the first samples of Mars product back to Earth for detailed study. The Mars Perseverance rover is the very first leg of this worldwide interplanetary relay group. Its task is to collect and cache samples on Mars.
A Sample Return Lander would land near or in Jezero Crater, bringing a little rocket on which the samples gathered by Perseverance would be packed. Two Ingenuity-like helicopters would provide a secondary capability to retrieve samples on the surface area of Mars.
When the sample cache is launched off the Red Planet, another spacecraft would catch it in Mars orbit, and then bring it back to Earth securely and safely in the early to mid-2030s.
These very first gathered and returned samples could respond to an essential question: did life ever exist on Mars? Only by bringing the samples back can we really address the concern by using the most advanced, advanced labs, at a time when future generations can study them using techniques yet to be created.

Mars Sample Return is a mission to return Martian samples collected by the Mars Perseverance rover to Earth. Credit: NASA/ESA/JPL-Caltech/ GSFC/MSFC.
NASA and the European Space Agency are establishing strategies for one of the most ambitious projects ever tried in area: bringing the very first samples of Mars material securely back to Earth for comprehensive study. The diverse set of clinically curated samples now being collected by NASAs Mars Perseverance rover might assist scientists address the concern of whether ancient life ever occurred on the Red Planet.
Bringing samples of Mars to Earth for future study would take place in numerous actions with several spacecraft, and in some ways, in an integrated way. This short animation functions crucial minutes of the Mars Sample Return project: from landing on Mars and securing the sample tubes to releasing them off the surface and shuttling them back to Earth.
Animation is contributed by NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the European Space Agency, Goddard Space Flight Center, and Marshall Space Flight Center.