The Bennu asteroid, a space rock not too far from Earth that is rich in carbon, continues to be a trove of information for ...

Bennu is a primitive rock. It has remained mostly unchanged since the birth of our solar system around 4.6 billion years ago. On September 24, 2023, dust and mineral samples were hauled to Earth by ...

NASA's Perseverance rover has grabbed another rock that may contain clues as to whether there was life on Mars. Officials with the Mars mission announced the milestone briefly Monday (Aug. 1) on ...

Plans are firming up to bring a sample of Mars back to Earth in 2031. A joint webinar last month by NASA and Lockheed Martin, which has participated in NASA sample return missions before, l went over ...

NASA aims to return Martian soil and rock samples to Earth in the 2030s, marking the first such planetary sample return mission. A decision on the mission profile is delayed until mid-2026. Two ...

NASA is looking for ways to get rock samples back from Mars for less than the $11 billion the agency would need under its own plan, so last month, officials put out a call to industry to propose ideas ...

China plans to launch two heavy-lift Long March 5 rockets with elements of the Tianwen-3 Mars sample return mission in 2028, the mission’s chief designer said Thursday. In a presentation at a Chinese ...

In what appears to be a jab at NASA, Rocket Lab this week unveiled its own plan to return rock and dust samples the space agency has been collecting from Mars’ Jezero Crater since 2021. NASA earlier ...

Albuquerque, N.M. – International planning is under way to reinvigorate plans for a Mars sample return mission, with researchers assessing science priorities and strategies to maximize the scientific ...

ESA plans to award a contract to Airbus Defence and Space, partnered with Thales Alenia Space, to build the Earth Return Orbiter mission to bring back samples of Mars to Earth. Credit: Airbus ...