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Bringing Mars Back To Earth

April 26, 2018

NASA and the European Space Agency are now working together to explore options for a pair of missions that could take the next steps to bring samples back from Mars.

Credits

NASA/JPL-Caltech

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These two views from NASA’s Curiosity rover, acquired specifically to measure the amount of dust inside Gale Crater, show that dust has increased over three days from a major Martian dust storm.
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This set of images from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a fierce dust storm is kicking up on Mars, with rovers on the surface indicated as icons.
Curiosity's View of the June 2018 Dust Storm
Mars’ nightside atmosphere glows and pulsates in this data animation from MAVEN spacecraft observations. Green-to-white false color shows the enhanced brightenings on Mars’ ultraviolet “nightglow" ...
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Mars Nightglow Animation from MAVEN Observations
Mars Nightglow Animation from MAVEN Observations
Download a PDF of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Launch Press Kit.
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Mars 2020 Perseverance Launch Press Kit
Mars 2020 Perseverance Launch Press Kit
After spending the better part of a year exploring Mars’ Vera Rubin Ridge, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has moved to a new part of Mount Sharp. Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada gives a tour of the ...
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After spending the better part of a year exploring Mars’ Vera Rubin Ridge, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has moved to a new part of Mount Sharp. Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada gives a tour of the rover's new home in the “clay unit,” as well as other areas scientists are excited to visit.
NASA's Curiosity Finds Climate Clues on a Martian Mountain
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured these sand ripples and the large dune (at center) on Feb. 9, 2009. Color has been a...
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sand ripples and a large dune on Mars
HiRISE Finds a Dune and Ripples
This stereo view shows the "Murray Ridge" portion of the western rim of Endeavour Crater on Mars. It appears three-dimensional when seen through blue-red glasses with the red lens on the left. NASA...
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This stereo view shows the "Murray Ridge" portion of the western rim of Endeavour Crater on Mars. It appears three-dimensional when seen through blue-red glasses with the red lens on the left.
'Murray Ridge' in Stereo from Mars Rover Opportunity
Tantalus Fossae are a set of faults on the eastern flank of Alba Mons, one of the great Tharsis Montes volcanoes. Here a fault cuts into this crater, indicating that the fault formed after the crat...
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Tantalus Fossae are a set of faults on the eastern flank of Alba Mons, one of the great Tharsis Montes volcanoes.
Crater in Tantalus Fossae (3-D)
A Goldstone 111.5-foot (34-meter) beam-waveguide antenna tracks a spacecraft as it comes into view. The Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex is located in the Mojave Desert in California. 
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A Goldstone 111.5-foot (34-meter) beam-waveguide antenna tracks a spacecraft as it comes into view. The Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex is located in the Mojave Desert in California.
Goldstone Antenna
Scientists and engineers working on NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover mission gather for a team portrait during the rovers’ prime mission on Mars in 2004 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena...
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Scientists and engineers working on NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover mission gather for a team portrait during the rovers’ prime mission on Mars in 2004 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Mars Exploration Rovers Team Picture
This calibration target for Mars 2020's SHERLOC instrument includes five samples of spacesuit material, the first to ever be flown to the Red Planet. By studying how these samples degrade in the Ma...
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This calibration target for Mars 2020's SHERLOC instrument includes five samples of spacesuit material, the first to ever be flown to the Red Planet. By studying how these samples degrade in the Martian environment, engineers can develop better spacesuits.
Spacesuit Material Going to Mars
Collecting samples from Mars and bringing them back to Earth will be a historic undertaking that starts with the launch of NASA's Perseverance rover, part of the Mars 2020 mission.
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Collecting samples from Mars and bringing them back to Earth will be a historic undertaking that starts with the launch of NASA's Perseverance rover, part of the Mars 2020 mission.
Mars Sample Return Media Reel
This sequence of images – taken on May 22, 2021, by the navigation camera aboard NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter – depicts the last 29 seconds of the rotorcraft’s sixth flight.
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Video taken by navigation camera aboard NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter – depicting the last 29 seconds of the rotorcraft’s sixth flight.
Ingenuity Navcam
Interact with this 3D model of Mars.
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3D model of Mars
Planet Mars, 3D Model
This artist's concept of a proposed Mars sample return mission portrays a series of six steps (A through F) in the spacecraft's landing on Mars. NASA and the European Space Agency are collaborating...
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This artist's concept of a proposed Mars sample return mission portrays a series of six steps (A through F) in the spacecraft's landing on Mars. NASA and the European Space Agency are collaborating on proposals for a mission to gather samples of Martian rocks and bring them to Earth after 2020.
Vehicle for Lofting a Sample Approaches Mars
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its navigation camera to take the exposures combined into this stereo view of a wee crater, informally named "Skylab," along the rover's route. The co...
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NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its navigation camera to take the exposures combined into this stereo view of a wee crater, informally named "Skylab," along the rover's route.
Opportunity Beside a Small, Young Crater (Stereo)
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity recorded this stereo view of the summit of "Cape Tribulation," on the western rim of Endeavour Crater, on the day before the rover drove to the top. The sc...
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NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity recorded this stereo view of the summit of "Cape Tribulation," on the western rim of Endeavour Crater, on the day before the rover drove to the top.
Approach to 'Cape Tribulation' Summit (Stereo)
Six facsimile sample tubes hang on the sample tube board in this image taken in the offices of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover.
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Six facsimile sample tubes hang on the sample tube board in this image taken in the offices of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover.
Perseverance Sample Tubes: Six Mars Samples and Counting
Download a PDF of Mars Quick Facts.
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Mars quick facts compared to Earth.
Mars Quick Facts
NASA’s Remote Hypervelocity Test Laboratory is equipped with four 2-stage light gas guns; two 0.17-caliber (0.177-inch bore diameter), a 0.50-caliber (0.50" bore diameter), and a 1-Inch (1.00" bore...
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NASA’s Remote Hypervelocity Test Laboratory is equipped with four 2-stage light gas guns; two 0.17-caliber (0.177-inch bore diameter), a 0.50-caliber (0.50" bore diameter), and a 1-Inch (1.00" bore diameter) gun at the facility.
Mars Mission Shields Up for Tests
This image shows part of Ladon Vallis that is located within Ladon basin.
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This image shows part of Ladon Vallis that is located within Ladon basin.
Light-Toned Layered Rock Outcrop in Ladon Valles (3-D)
An engineer inspects the completed spacecraft that will carry NASA's next Mars rover to the Red Planet.
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An engineer inspects the completed spacecraft that will carry NASA's next Mars rover to the Red Planet, prior to a test in the Space Simulator Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Mars 2020 Is Coming Together
This stereo landscape scene from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows rows of rocks in the foreground and Mount Sharp on the horizon. It appears three dimensional when viewed through red-blue glasses ...
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This stereo landscape scene from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows rows of rocks in the foreground and Mount Sharp on the horizon.
Martian Landscape With Rock Rows and Mount Sharp (Stereo)
NASA Associate Administrator for Science Thomas Zurbuchen addressed the Opportunity rover team inside Mission Control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, a few hours before...
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NASA Associate Administrator for Science Thomas Zurbuchen addressed the Opportunity rover team inside Mission Control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, a few hours before the team made its last attempts to listen for the rover’s signal from Mars. The image was taken on Feb. 12, 2019.
Addressing the Opportunity Team
This image, acquired on May 13, 2018 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows sand dunes scouring what appears to be a highly-cratered, old lava flow in the Tempe Terra region, located in the N...
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This image, acquired on May 13, 2018 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows sand dunes scouring what appears to be a highly-cratered, old lava flow in the Tempe Terra region, located in the Northern Hemisphere.
This is Not the Hydrothermal Deposit You're Looking For
Perseverance’s first cored-rock sample is visible inside this titanium sample collection tube in this image taken on Sept. 6, 2021.
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Perseverance’s first cored-rock sample is visible inside this titanium sample collection tube in this image taken on Sept. 6, 2021.
Perseverance's First Cored Mars Rock in Sample Tube

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