https://www.universetoday.com/ This is How the ESA and NASA Will be Working Together to Bring Rocks Back From Mars In the near future, sample-return missions from Mars will finally be a reality. For decades, scientists have analyzed the composition of Martian rocks and soil by either sending rovers to the surface or by examining meteorites that came from Mars. But with missions like Perseverance, which are equipped with a sample cache instrument, it won’t be long before Martian rocks are brought back to Earth for study. Similar to how the Apollo astronauts brought back Moon rocks, which revealed the existence of water on the Moon and its similarity to Earth, Martian rocks could reveal a great deal about the formation and evolution of the Red Planet. The question is, what rocks should be returned? This is the question that the international Mars Sample Return campaign is considering on the eve of Perseverance’s launch. That launch is currently scheduled for July of this year, barring any Coronavirus-related delays. While Perseverance is a mission overseen by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the sample return campaign includes all twenty-two ESA member states, who agreed to finance the campaign last year during the Space19+ Ministerial Council in Seville, Spain. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! more at link..................
That's interesting Padd. Have you heard about the return of a martian meteorite back to Mars? Return to Mars One slice of the rock stays here and another goes to Mars. It is to help with the calibrating of the on board Laser.
Actually no, I havn't. Interesting also. The thing is that getting man to Mars, and/or bringing anything back, is obviously going to be a gigantic effort, many times more difficult the the decade that got man to the Moon. My greatest wish [along with finding hard evidence of life elsewhere] is that it can be achieved before I kick the bucket.
Hope when they get there, they don't leave it for a half century plus, before they go back. Love them to find fossil or really good evidence for life on Mars. Talk about half century, if they do detect a signal from ET, the generation alive at the time won't be around when they get the reply to the ''How do you do?'' we will sent.
