Mars sample return mission
NASA Tests its Next-Generation Mars Helicopter Blades
While NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter continues to break records for both airspeed and altitude while it explores Jezero Crater on…
Ariane 6 Fires its Engines, Simulating a Flight to Space
The ESA recently conducted a test fire of its next-generation Ariane 6 rocket, a dress rehearsal for its first test…
What’s Going on With the Mars Sample Return Mission?
Anybody with a modicum of intellectual curiosity is looking forward to the NASA/ESA Mars Sample Return Mission. NASA's Perseverance rover…
China Wants to Retrieve a Sample of Mars by 2028
In preparation for their sample-return mission to Mars (Tianwen-3), Chinese scientists have created an atmospheric model that accurately simulates Martian…
This Mess of Boulders Was Deposited by an Ancient River on Mars
NASA's Perseverance rover took its 20th sample from "Emerald Lake," an area filled by rocks that were deposited by an…
We Can Only Bring 30 Samples of Mars Back to Earth. How Do We Decide?
The Mars Sample Return Mission is one of the most ambitious missions ever conceived. Though the samples won't be returned…
Perseverance is Turning Into That Friend That's Always Picking Up Rocks
NASA's Perseverance rover just obtained its sixteenth sample, which will be retrieved by the joint NASA/ESA Sample Return Mission
Europe Will be Building the Transfer Arm for the Mars Sample Return Mission
Now that the Perseverance rover has dropped off ten regolith and rock sample tubes for a future sample return mission…
Perseverance Takes a Selfie to Show off Some of its Samples
One of the main jobs for the Perseverance Mars rover past few weeks has been collecting carefully selected samples of…
Perseverance Places its First Sample on the Surface of Mars. One Day This Will be in the Hands of Scientists on Earth
In the not-too-distant future, a planetary scientist will open up a tube of rocks that came from Mars. Thanks to…