A Mars sample return is considered one of several important steps towards getting human boots on Mars. To that end, NASA handed out a contract in 2021 to Northrop Grumman to develop a rocket that ...

While NASA's Mars Sample Return initiative is in political hot water, China is moving ahead on plotting out its rendezvous with the Red Planet. New details of China's aims are emerging.

NASA's Mars Sample Return mission has long been a point of contention for the agency, but now someone might have a plan to save it.

"Our most recent commercial industry-led offer to NASA is to execute Mars Sample Return (MSR) as a firm-fixed price solution for under $3 billion," a June 26 statement from Lockheed Martin read ...

The roadmap of the Chinese Mars Sample Return mission, which will be launched in 2028. Credit: Nature Astronomy (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-025-02572-0 ...

Mars Sample Return has been in the works for quite some time now, but it didn't really kick off until the Perseverance rover took off for the Red Planet in 2020. For a while, it seemed like ...

This is where the new rocket motor comes in. The last task of the rover will be to return to the lander, where a robotic arm will remove the sample container and transfer it to NASA's Mars Ascent ...

Despite this newfound confidence, though, NASA does not plan for a sample return mission in the near future. Indeed, it may not take place until sometime in the 2040s.