NASA is moving swiftly to bring Mars samples back to Earth

[Mike Wehner]

• NASA says it's ready to begin the long process of eventually sending samples of Mars back to Earth.
• An independent review gave NASA the thumbs up and says it appears to have everything it needs to begin the decade-long project.
• Eventually, samples collected by the Perseverance rover will be shot into space, collected by an orbiter, and then brought back to Earth.

NASA has explored Mars more than any other agency or scientific group on the planet. With multiple rovers, orbiters, and probes chilling out on the Red Planet, NASA's hard work has revealed more about Mars than we could ever have hoped to know... but it's not done yet. Ahead of the eventual crewed missions to Mars, NASA wants to be able to study material from the planet's surface here on Earth, and doing so is a complicated endeavor.

The Mars Sample Return campaign will begin in earnest once the Perseverance rover arrives on the planet, and a recent independent review reveals that the agency is indeed ready to begin the "campaign to bring pristine samples from Mars to Earth for scientific study."

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NASA is moving swiftly to bring Mars samples back to Earth originally appeared on BGR.com on Tue, 10 Nov 2020 at 17:08:10 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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