BBC Science Focus Magazine

GO FETCH WHY WE’RE BRINGING SAMPLES HOME FROM MARS

TELL US ABOUT THE SAMPLE RETURN MISSION.

The Mars Sample Return mission is the first mission – programme actually, because more than one craft is required – to return samples from another planet. We have samples from the Moon returned by the Apollo missions, by the Russian rover and most recently by the Chinese. And we’ve returned samples from asteroids [via missions run] by the US and Japan. But we’ve yet to return a sample from Mars. That’s the objective. The first step is the Perseverance rover, which is beginning to collect samples after NASA landed it successfully on Mars in February this year.

The Mars Sample Return programme is a joint endeavour between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), although NASA is leading it. NASA will be responsible for the rockets that will

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