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How the Perseverance Mars Rover Will Help NASA Return Mars Samples to Earth

July 28, 2020

When our Perseverance Mars rover launches on July 30, it's set to be the first leg of a series of sample return missions in the search for evidence of life beyond Earth. Watch as experts from both NASA and the European Space Agency discuss how Perseverance will collect samples for future return to Earth.

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NASA/JPL-Caltech/KSC/ESA

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Shown here is an annotated representation of the 13 sample tubes containing rock-core samples that are being carried aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover as of Dec. 12, 2023, when the mission was marki...
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Shown here is an annotated representation of the 13 sample tubes containing rock-core samples that are being carried aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover as of Dec. 12, 2023, when the mission was marking its 1,000th Martian day, or sol, on the Red Planet.
Cored Samples Aboard Perseverance at Sol 1,000
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover carries two microphones which are directly recording sounds on the Red Planet, including the Ingenuity helicopter and the rover itself at work.
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NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover carries two microphones which are directly recording sounds on the Red Planet, including the Ingenuity helicopter and the rover itself at work.
Open Mic on Mars
Sample radargram of a glacier in Svalbard obtained with the HUBRA radar instrument, a precursor of RIMFAX built by the FFI team.
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Fig. 2 - Sample radargram of a glacier in Svalbard obtained with the HUBRA radar instrument, a precursor of RIMFAX built by the FFI team.
RIMFAX Sample Radargram
The photo was taken on March 16, 2020 in a cleanroom at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center during final preparation for launch.
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Hand cleaning plate with Mars rover illustrations
Rover Evolution Plate Getting Ready for Mars
In this illustration, NASA's Perseverance Mars rover uses the Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL). Located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm, the X-ray spectromet...
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Illustration of the PIXL instrument on the Perseverance rover.
Perseverance's PIXL at Work on Mars (Illustration)
This map shows where NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover will be dropping 10 samples that a future mission could pick up. 
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This map shows where NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover will be dropping 10 samples that a future mission could pick up.
A Map of Perseverance's Depot Samples
This illustration depicts three different of models of NASA’s solar-powered Mars helicopter.
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This illustration depicts three different of models of NASA’s solar-powered Mars helicopter.
NASA's Mars Helicopters: Present, Future, and Proposed
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took this image overlooking the “Séítah” region using its navigation camera. 
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Perseverance rover took this image overlooking the sandy “Séítah” region. The Ingenuity helicopter flew over this region during its ninth flight and it shows the rocky surface of mars and hills in the background.
Perseverance Looks Out Over 'Séítah'
A close-up view of the single-engine Centaur upper stage for the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket for NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover.
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A close-up view of the single-engine Centaur upper stage
Mars 2020 Centaur Lift and Mate
Taken on March 5, 2021, this color-calibrated image from a Navigation Camera aboard NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover shows tracks from the rover’s first drive (darker marks in the foreground) an...
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These sets of animated GIFs show seven views of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover wiggling its wheels on March 4, 2021, the day Perseverance completed its first drive on Mars.
Multiple Views of Perseverance's Wheels Wiggling
NASA's Mars Perseverance rover's descent stage was recently stacked atop the rover at Kennedy Space Center, and the two were placed in their back shell. The Ingenuity helicopter can be seen attache...
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Image of the underside of the Mars 2020 rover
Perseverance from Below
Technicians install a Mastcam-Z high-definition camera in the remote sensing mast that will later go on NASA's Mars 2020 rover.
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Technicians install a Mastcam-Z high-definition camera in the remote sensing mast that will later go on NASA's Mars 2020 rover.
NASA's Mars 2020 Rover Gets HD Eyes
This image of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at “Airfield Mu” was taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument aboard Perseverance on April 14, 2023, the 764th Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission.
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This image of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at “Airfield Mu” was taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument aboard Perseverance on April 14, 2023, the 764th Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission.
Ingenuity at 'Airfield Mu'
This graphic depicts Perseverance’s entry into “Séítah” from both an orbital and subsurface perspective. The lower image is a subsurface “radargram” from the rover’s RIMFAX instrument; the red line...
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This graphic depicts Perseverance’s entry into “Séítah” from both an orbital and subsurface perspective. The lower image is a subsurface “radargram” from the rover’s RIMFAX instrument; the red lines indicate link subsurface features to erosion-resistant rocky outcrops visible above the surface.
Perseverance's Traverse, Seen From Above and Below
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 image of the “South Séítah” region of Jezero Crater was captured by NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during its 12th flight at Mars, on Aug. 16, 2021, and has proven useful to the Perseverance...
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This image of the “South Séítah” region of Jezero Crater was captured by NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during its 12th flight at Mars, on Aug. 16, 2021, and has proven useful to the Perseverance rover science team as it plans its science investigations.
Flight 12 View of South Seítah
Taken on Aug. 17, 2022, the 531st Martian day, or sol, of the mission shows the back of Coring Bit 2 in the bit carousel NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. A wavy, stringlike piece of foreign object d...
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This image shows the back of Coring Bit 2 in the bit carousel NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover.
Perseverance Coring Bit
Collecting samples from Mars and bringing them back to Earth is a historic undertaking that starts with the launch of NASA's Mars 2020 rover. 
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Collecting samples from Mars and bringing them back to Earth is a historic undertaking that starts with the launch of NASA's Mars 2020 rover.
NASA Advances Plans to Bring Samples Back From Mars
Illustrated here, the aluminum wheels of NASA's Curiosity (left) and Perseverance rovers. Slightly larger in diameter and narrower, 20.7 inches (52.6 centimeters) versus 20 inches (50.8 centimeters...
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An image of the aluminum wheels of NASA's Curiosity (left) and Perseverance rovers.
Curiosity's and Perseverance's Wheels
NASA Science missions circle Earth, the Sun, the Moon, Mars and many other destinations within our solar system, including spacecraft that look out even further into our universe. The Science Fleet...
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NASA Science missions circle Earth, the Sun, the Moon, Mars and many other destinations within our solar system, including spacecraft that look out even further into our universe. The Science Fleet depicts the scope of NASA's activity and how our missions have traveled throughout the solar system.
SMD Spacecraft Fleet
Video footage from the Mastcam-Z instrument aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover provides a big-picture perspective of the 13th flight of the agency’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, on Sept. 4, 2021.
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Video footage from the Mastcam-Z instrument aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover provides a big-picture perspective of the 13th flight of the agency’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, on Sept. 4, 2021.
Ingenuity Mars Helicopter's 13th Flight: Wide-Angle Video From Perseverance
As part of a NASA-ESA campaign to return rock and soil samples from Mars to Earth, engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are designing a lander which will be the heaviest spacecraft ever to...
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As part of a NASA-ESA campaign to return rock and soil samples from Mars to Earth, engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are designing a lander which will be the heaviest spacecraft ever to touch down on the Red Planet.
#MarsSampleReturn: How Do You Test the Legs of NASA's Heaviest Mars Spacecraft?
This illustration shows NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover on the surface of the Red Planet.
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Perseverance rover on Mars with gradient background
Perseverance Rover on Mars (Gradient Illustration)
Episode one launches with Jennifer Trosper in the driver’s seat. As she looks in the rearview mirror at twenty-five years of exploring with NASA’s Mars rovers, she reveals how their progression has...
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Episode one launches with Jennifer Trosper in the driver’s seat. As she looks in the rearview mirror at twenty-five years of exploring with NASA’s Mars rovers, she reveals how their progression has kept pace with milestones in her life.
Driven to Mars
Seen from below, NASA's he Mars 2020 Perseverance rover bears a plaque to the right of its middle wheel. Featuring a snake-entwined rod to symbolize healing and medicine, it commemorates the impact...
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Seen from below, NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover bears a plaque to the right of its middle wheel.
Perseverance Rover With Commemorative Plate

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