NASA's troubled Mars sample-return program may have a new lifeline, in the form of a proposal from private space company Rocket Lab to help save the mission.
When the Perseverance rover landed on Mars in 2021, the plan was to follow up with a mission in the early 2030s that would retrieve the canisters containing samples of Martian dirt, rocks and atmosphere collected by the rover, and bring them to Earth for detailed study. The hope is that the samples will be able to tell researchers about conditions on Mars billions of years ago, and possibly whether the planet has ever supported life.
