Skip to main content

NASA wants to send two more missions to Mars to collect rock samples

From left to right: Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin stands on the Moon; 47 pounds (21.5 kilograms) of samples were brought back to Earth from that mission; the Mars 2020 rover, seen here in an artist’s concept rover, will be taking the first planetary samples at Jezero Crater, Mars (on right). NASA/JPL-Caltech

One of the biggest scientific successes of the Apollo mission was collecting samples from the Moon which were brought back to Earth for study. Even 50 years later, these samples are still leading to new scientific breakthroughs. And NASA hopes to replicate this success with its Mars 2020 mission, which aims to collect samples from Mars when it launches next year.

The challenge is how to get those samples back to Earth. If the mission is successful, this would be the first time that a sample has been collected from another planet. “Apollo 11 demonstrated the immense value of returning samples from other worlds for analysis here on Earth,” Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, said in a statement. “Today, we are standing on the shoulders of Apollo, preparing for the launch of the initial step in humanity’s first roundtrip and sample return from another planet — Mars.”

Related Videos

NASA has revealed more details about its sample collection plans, focused around the Jezero Crater where the Mars 2020 rover will land. The rover will collect the samples and can perform basic analysis in situ, then two subsequent missions will be required to bring those samples back to Earth. The first of these missions would be landing a rocket called the mars Ascent Vehicle along with a spacecraft and second rover in the crater, then launching the samples into orbit around Mars. The second mission would rendezvous with the samples and return them to Earth.

To achieve this monumental feat, NASA will cooperate with other space agencies such as the European Space Agency. The mission ties into NASA’s broader mission for eventual manned missions to Mars staged from an outpost on the Moon as part of the Artemis project.

“NASA and the European Space Agency are solidifying these exciting mission concepts to retrieve the samples,” Zurbuchen said. “Just as the first samples returned to Earth from the Moon’s Sea of Tranquility made history, the first samples returned to Earth from another planet will make history and amaze us all over again. And those samples will come from Mars’ Jezero Crater.”

Editors' Recommendations

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter sets new flight records on Mars
NASA's Ingenuity helicopter.

NASA’s space helicopter has set two new flight records on Mars.

During what the mission team described as Ingenuity’s “most ambitious flight” among its 25 trips to date, the 4-pound, 19-inch-high helicopter flew a distance of 2,324.2 feet (708.4 meters), smashing its previous record of 2,072.8 feet (631.8 meters) by 251.4 feet (76.6 meters).

Read more
Curiosity rover nopes out of region of sharp Mars rocks
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used its Mast Camera, or Mastcam, to survey these wind-sharpened rocks, called ventifacts, on March 15, 2022, the 3,415th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The team has informally described these patches of ventifacts as “gator-back” rocks because of their scaly appearance.

There are many obstacles for a little rover exploring Mars to deal with, from steep hills to deep ravines to dust which can obscure solar panels or get into mechanical components. Now, the Curiosity rover has one more challenge to add to that list: The densest region of sharp rocks that the rover's NASA drivers have ever seen.

The rocks, sharpened into vicious points by the Martian wind, were spotted blocking Curiosity's path in an area called the Greenheugh Pediment on March 18. The team decided they couldn't risk running Curiosity's wheels over the jagged rocks, especially since similar rocks had already damaged the wheels earlier in the mission in 2017. “It was obvious from Curiosity’s photos that this would not be good for our wheels,” said Megan Lin, Curiosity Project Manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a statement. “It would be slow going, and we wouldn’t have been able to implement rover-driving best practices.”

Read more
NASA’s Mars helicopter will fly furthest yet in next flight
NASA's Ingenuity helicopter.

In the year since NASA’s Mars helicopter first hovered above the martian surface to become the only aircraft to achieve powered, controlled flight on another planet, Ingenuity has taken 23 additional flights.

Now the mission team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is prepping the 4-pound, 19-inch-high helicopter for a record-breaking flight of 704 meters, a distance that will smash its current record by 77 meters.

Read more