The aerospace giant says it can revive Mars Sample Return with a leaner, lower-cost approach drawing on proven designs.

China’s Tianwen-3 Mars sample return mission could bring Red Planet rocks back to Earth as early as 2031—years ahead of ...

China's first Mars sample-return mission, Tianwen-3, is scheduled for launch around 2028, with the goal of returning no less ...

See Rocket Lab's "proposed mission architecture" for a Mars sample return mission in this animation. Credit: Rocket Lab ...

While originally conceived as an in-house job, NASA has since realized that its version of the plan would cost at least $7 ...

The White House says NASA's Mars Sample Return mission is a waste of money, but experts say the mission could help it achieve its goal of putting humans on Mars.

China's roadmap for a Mars Sample Return mission to be launched in 2028. (Image credit: The University of Hong Kong/Zengqian Hou, et al.) Just how impactful their potential success could be is now ...

Animation of Rocket Lab’s proposed Mars Sample Return mission. Credit: Rocket Lab. When the Space Shuttle was retired, America didn’t turn to a NASA-led development program to get humans back ...

But the Mars Sample Return mission is so complex and expensive that NASA is not working on it alone. It is partnering with the European Space Agency to get samples and safely return them to Earth.

If you’ve heard of any Mars rock, it’s probably the Cheyava Falls sample. In July 2024, Perseverance grabbed a piece of a rock within Jezero Crater that was once exposed to flowing water.

BEIJING -- China's first Mars sample-return mission, Tianwen 3, is scheduled for launch around 2028, with the goal of ...