REAL LIFE NEWS: A MISSION TO COLLECT MARS ROCKS
by Hazed
NASA and the European Space Agency have announced that they are talking about a joint mission to bring rock and soil samples back from Mars.
The two agencies have signed a letter of intent to look at a mission that would be the first return trip to the red planet.
Scientists said that there is only so much that can be learned from Martian meteorites that hit Earth, and from the various landers and rovers previously sent to Mars. The next step has to be a round trip that could retrieve samples, blast them into space in a capsule and return them back to Earth where they could be analysed in laboratories, using implements too big and power-hungry to be carried by a robotic rover.
The next step will be to draw up a design for the mission. NASA’s 2020 rover mission will help to pave the way by drilling into the surface and caching the cores in containers, as a demonstration of feasibility, but that’s only part of what will be required.
Source: https://www.engadget.com/2018/04/27/nasa-esa-mars-soil-sample-return-mission/
