NASA and the ESA recently approved the second phase of the Mars 2020 Perseverance mission that would bring rock samples from the Red Planet back to Earth called the Mars Sample Return multi-mission (MRS). The first return flight from another planet would begin by the 2030 decade, bringing a sealed capsule technology to know if there is life on Mars.
The mission would be relatively hard, as there would be no human intervention in all of the processes, apart from remote controls of the rovers from a massive 116 million km (72 million miles) in the current orbit status. February's orbit distance between the two planets does not differ much from the current range and would be a massive gap for the mission's control.
However, NASA is prepared for this one as it already has plans on how to properly secure the payload unto a launcher and attaching to another spacecraft for a grueling 8-month mission back to the planet. According to NASA, there would be a dedicated Sample Fetch Rover to get and seal the samples from Perseverance, and a Mars Ascent Vehicle to launch from the Red Planet.
From there, the Mars Ascent Vehicle, which would also be the first rocket launch from the Red Planet, would give the Earth Return Orbiter all of the gathered samples for its 8-month journey back to Earth. All of these would happen towards the end of the 2020 decade and are expected to return to the home planet in the early 2030s.
Mars' sample missions are ten years in the making, with the Mars 2020 Perseverance mission having launched from the planet earlier this July.
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Written by Isaiah Alonzo
