Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Right now one of the most advanced planetary explorers ever built is scouring the surface of Mars. Supported by a team of hundreds ...

NASA has committed to running two competing landing architectures side by side for its Mars Sample Return mission, a strategy the agency has never attempted for a planetary return campaign. The ...

Bringing samples from Mars back to Earth is one of NASA's most ambitious goals. The plan goes back to the 1970s, with NASA's robotic exploration program, when the first spacecraft landed on the ...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. >> NASA’s plan to bring samples from Mars back to Earth is on hold until there’s a faster, cheaper way, ...

NASA and China are locked in an unprecedented competition to achieve humanity's first rocket launch from another planet's surface, with Mars samples worth their weight in scientific gold hanging in ...

A mudstone sample from Jezero Crater shows textures and minerals that on Earth often form through microbial activity. Scientists caution that nonbiological processes could also explain the features, ...

“This finding by Perseverance …is the closest we have ever come to discovering life on Mars,” said acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy in a statement. “The identification of a potential biosignature ...

NASA has awarded a contract to build a testbed for optically guided rendezvous and docking in Mars orbit — a key technique that will be required for a Mars sample return mission. A sample return ...

NASA's Perseverance rover may have uncovered hints of ancient Martian life, but China's Tianwen 3 mission could be the first to deliver samples back to Earth. When you purchase through links on our ...