NASA: Current Mars Report

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SAMPLE RETURN
MISSION
Mars Sample Return
MOREMISSION INFO
News & Features
Quick Facts
Program Mars Sample Return
Main Job Deliver samples collected by the Mars Perseverance rover to Earth
Launch Planned launches in 2027 (orbiter) and 2028 (lander)
Landing Location Jezero Crater
Return of Samples Expected to arrive on Earth in 2033
Fact Sheet
Bringing Mars Samples to Earth
Bringing Mars Samples to Earth
NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) are planning ways to bring the first samples of Mars material back to Earth for detailed study. The Mars Perseverance rover is the first leg of this international, interplanetary relay team. Its job is to collect and cache samples on Mars. A Sample Retrieval Lander would land near or in Jezero Crater, bringing a small rocket on which the samples collected by Perseverance would be loaded. Two Ingenuity-like helicopters would provide a secondary capability to retrieve samples on the surface of Mars. Once the sample cache is launched off the Red Planet, another spacecraft would capture it in Mars orbit, and then bring it to Earth safely and securely in the early to mid 2030s. These first collected and returned samples could answer a key question: did life ever exist on Mars? Only by bringing the samples to Earth can we truly answer the question by using the most sophisticated, state-of-the-art labs, at a time when future generations can study them using techniques yet to be invented.