NASA Advances Plans to Bring Samples Back From Mars

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. That rover will collect samples and leave them ready for a future mission to retrieve and return to Earth. The future stages of Mars Sample Return involve the collaboration of NASA and the European Space Agency to develop a lander, a fetch rover, an ascent vehicle to launch the sample container to Martian orbit, and a retrieval spacecraft for carrying the samples to Earth. In this video, visit some of the labs at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory where prototypes and engineering models involved in the Mars Sample Return campaign are being tested.
Credit: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory