Mars sample return
Perseverance is just the first stage in an ambitious plan
One of the most important tasks of NASA’s Perseverance rover is to collect soil samples and prepare them for a future return to Earth, where geologists and astrobiologist can study them in fully equipped terrestrial laboratories. “It’s thrilling to think that these samples have the potential to lead to major, possible paradigm-shifting discoveries about Mars, our Solar System, and life beyond Earth,” says deputy project scientist Katie Mack.
Perseverance will seal the precious material – pebbles, soil and atmosphere – in some 40 titanium capsules that will be left at a small number of recovery spots, to be collected by a future space mission – probably a NASA/ESA collaborative effort. This new, as-yet undefined (and un-funded) mission will comprise an orbiter, a lander, a small rover, some sort of capsule launch mechanism, the retrieval of the capsules in Mars orbit, a return flight to Earth, and a parachute drop of the container carrying the samples.
Given the necessary time to develop this complex mission, and the infrequent launch windows for a flight to Mars, it’s unlikely that scientists will have ‘fresh’ samples from the Red Planet under their microscopes before the early 2030s. MastcamZ’s principal investigator Jim Bell, says: “For me, the idea of being able to help identify and select these samples is super exciting.”