Tag Archives: Mars sample return

Returning space samples links Apollo 11 and Mars 2020

Posted on August 13, 2019 by rburnham

On July 24, 1969, Apollo 11 command module Columbia splashed down in the Pacific, fulfilling President Kennedy’s goal to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth. Among the mission’s many firsts was the acquisition and … Continue reading →

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Mars courier: Bringing the samples to Earth

Posted on July 29, 2019 by rburnham

The first round-trip to the Red Planet will see a European orbiter bringing martian samples back to Earth. ESA is opening the door to industry to build the spacecraft that will deliver the precious rocks, dust and gas from Mars … Continue reading →

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ESA: Mars on Earth — what next?

Posted on May 31, 2019 by rburnham

A Mars Sample Return campaign would bring samples of the Red Planet back to Earth for examination in the best terrestrial laboratories – but choosing the samples and storing them on Mars for later return is only one part of … Continue reading →

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Europe to Mars — and back!

Posted on May 27, 2019 by rburnham

Europe has been in orbit around Mars for more than 15 years and is almost a year away from launching its first rover mission, but ambitions are already running high to go one step further: returning a sample from the … Continue reading →

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Defining the goals for collecting Mars samples

Posted on March 7, 2019 by rburnham

Returning samples from the surface of Mars has been a high-priority goal of the international Mars exploration community for many years. Although randomly collected samples would be potentially interesting, they would not be sufficient to answer the big questions that … Continue reading →

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NASA’s $2.4-billion plan to steal a rock from Mars

Posted on January 19, 2017 by rburnham

Ed. note: The following is an except from a story in Nature; full story here. Adam Steltzner rose to engineering stardom in 2012, when NASA’s Curiosity rover plummeted to a perfect landing on Mars, thanks to a daring, fiery manoeuvre … Continue reading →

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Seeking signs of life and more: NASA’s Mars 2020 rover mission

Posted on January 12, 2017 by rburnham

Ed. note: The following is an except from a story in Eos, published by the American Geophysical Union. Full story here. The next Mars rover will be able to land near rugged terrain, giving scientists access to diverse landscapes. It … Continue reading →

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‘Adaptive caching’ planned for Mars 2020 rover

Posted on June 12, 2015 by rburnham

This diagram, superimposed on a photo of Martian landscape, illustrates a concept called “adaptive caching,” which is in development for NASA’s 2020 Mars rover mission. [Click image to enlarge in a new tab or window.] In addition to the investigations … Continue reading →

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Mars 2020 rover payload selected

Posted on July 31, 2014 by rburnham

The next rover NASA will send to Mars in 2020 will carry seven carefully-selected instruments to conduct unprecedented science and exploration technology investigations on the Red Planet… [These will] conduct geological assessments of the rover’s landing site, determine the potential … Continue reading →

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HiRISE: Sample terrain near Nili Fossae

Posted on July 14, 2014 by rburnham

Sample terrain near Nili Fossae. Beautiful Mars series.

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