Sophisticated laboratories aboard probes like the Curiosity Rover and the upcoming Insight Mars Lander can tell us much, but samples of Martian soil in terrestrial laboratories would open new worlds of exploration for scientists. To that end, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) just revealed a bold plan to retrieve soil samples from the surface of the red planet and transport them back to Earth. In a statement of intent released last week, the two agencies outlined their proposal, which would require multiple missions and some tricky maneuvering in orbit around Mars.
The Mars 2020 rover, which has already begun assembly at the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in Pasadena, California, will land on Mars via a rocket-powered sky crane. It will collect about 30 soil samples in small test-tube-sized containers and place them in a location for later retrieval. The next mission will utilize a “fetch rover” to collect the samples and then return to its lander, which will launch the small payload into orbit using a Mars Ascent Vehicle. Such a launch has never been done before, and it will require extensive coordination between the agencies to pull it off.
Credits: https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/nasa-esa-bringing-mars-soil-to-earth/ https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/21666/bringing-mars-back-to-earth/
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