NASA Looks To Private Industry To Save Mars Sample Return Mission

photomontage of sample tubes on Mars

A camera on the end of the Perseverance rover’s 7-ft. arm captured these images of sample tubes the rover deposited onto the surface of Mars. The tubes contain a backup collection of rock cores
and regolith that could be recovered as part of a sample-return campaign.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Scientists have spent decades on a strategic search to determine if life ever existed on Mars, the most Earth-like planet in the Solar System. Technology demonstrations paved the way for missions to search for signs of past water, followed by a hunt for habitable environments and conditions where...
Irene Klotz

Irene Klotz is Senior Space Editor for Aviation Week, based in Cape Canaveral. Before joining Aviation Week in 2017, Irene spent 25 years as a wire service reporter covering human and robotic spaceflight, commercial space, astronomy, science and technology for Reuters and United Press International.

Mark Carreau

Mark is based in Houston, where he has written on aerospace for more than 25 years. While at the Houston Chronicle, he was recognized by the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement Foundation in 2006 for his professional contributions to the public understanding of America's space program through news reporting.

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