NASA Outlines Plans To Carry First-Ever Martian Samples Back To Earth

Pieces of Mars could be finding their way to Earth as NASA gears up to transport the very first samples from the Red Planet back home. 

NASA’s plan officially called the Mars Sample Return Program involves using the Perseverance rover that was transported to the planetoid in 2021. The space team hopes to take some rocks, gravel, and even a bit of Mars’ atmosphere. 

The project is a relatively complex mission that involves a new lander to touch base on Mars in the Jezero Crater in order to make the transfer. 

Perseverance will be tasked with meeting up with the lander and its two helicopters and passing the items over to it. Three robots will be on hand to take the items off of the rover before boarding the spacecraft again. 

Once they have secured the samples, the lander will launch into Mars’ orbit where another spaceship provided by the European Space Agency (ESA) will capture it and assist it back to our world. 

This is all set to take place and be accomplished by mid-2033, with the first orbiter to be launched in 2027. 

The samples are key pieces to the puzzling question of whether life ever existed on Mars.
  

[via CNET and NASA, cover image via NASA/JPL-Caltech]