Mars sample return – artist's concept
A Mars sample-return (MSR) mission is a proposed mission to collect rock and dust samples on Mars and return them to Earth.[1] Such a mission would allow more extensive analysis than that allowed by onboard sensors.[2]
Risks of cross-contamination of the Earth biosphere from returned Martian samples have been raised, though the risk of this occurring is considered to be low.[3]
The most recent concepts are a NASA-ESA proposal; a CNSA proposal, Tianwen-3; a Roscosmos proposal, Mars-Grunt; and a JAXA proposal, Martian Moons eXploration (MMX). Although NASA and ESA's plans to return the samples to Earth are still in the design stage as of 2024[update], samples have been gathered on Mars by the Perseverance rover.[4]
- ^ Chang, Kenneth (28 July 2020). "Bringing Mars Rocks to Earth: Our Greatest Interplanetary Circus Act – NASA and the European Space Agency plan to toss rocks from one spacecraft to another before the samples finally land on Earth in 2031". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 26 June 2023. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
- ^ Treiman, Allan H.; Wadhwa, Meenakshi; Shearer, Charles K. Jr.; MacPherson, Glenn J.; Papike, James J.; Wasserburg, Gerald J.; Floss, Christine; Rutherford, Malcolm J.; Flynn, George J.; Papanastassiou, Dimitri; Westphal, Andrew; Neal, Clive; Jones, John H.; Harvey, Ralph P.; Schwenzer, Suzsanne. Groundbreaking Sample Return from Mars: The Next Giant Leap in Understanding the Red Planet (PDF) (Technical report). Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 June 2022.
- ^ David, Leonard (23 June 2022). "Controversy Grows Over whether Mars Samples Endanger Earth – Planetary scientists are eager to bring Red Planet rocks, soil and even air to Earth, but critics fear the risk of contaminating our world's biosphere". Scientific American. Archived from the original on 26 August 2023. Retrieved 25 June 2022.
- ^ "Mars Sample Return Campaign". mars.nasa.gov. NASA. Archived from the original on 15 June 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2022.