A milestone for the most complex Mars mission
NASA officials confirmed Wednesday that the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission passed its System Requirements Review (SRR), a key gate before full-scale hardware development begins. The mission involves three launches: a NASA lander to collect samples from Perseverance, a European Space Agency orbiter to retrieve them in Mars orbit, and a return capsule to deliver them to Earth.
Perseverance has already collected 28 rock cores and 3 regolith samples from Jezero Crater since landing in 2021. The samples are stored in titanium tubes on the Martian surface.
Revised architecture reduces cost and risk
The current plan simplifies earlier designs by using a single lander instead of two, saving NASA an estimated $1.5 billion. Instead of a dedicated fetch rover, Perseverance itself will deliver samples to the lander, using a helicopter backup system for redundancy if the rover cannot reach the landing site.
The European orbiter will rendezvous with the sample container in Mars orbit and seal it inside a sterile containment vessel before returning to Earth.
Why scientists are waiting
Martian samples could answer whether life ever existed on the Red Planet. Instruments on Earth are far more capable than anything that can fit on a rover. Back-analyzing the samples could also reveal the geological history of Mars and help prepare for future human missions.
If funding continues on schedule, the samples would land in Utah in 2033. China is pursuing its own sample return mission, Tianwen-3, with a target date of 2031.