• Question: when is the Mars rover due to come back?

    Asked by anon-271039 on 27 Nov 2020.
    • Photo: Kate Dobson

      Kate Dobson answered on 27 Nov 2020:

      At the moment NASA are planning a mission that would launch in 2028, and land somewhere near the Mars rover to pick up all the samples it collected and return them to Earth. A lot of work goes into designing “space proof” and “Mars proof” sensor so that we can make many of the interesting measurements remotely.

    • Photo: Sevasti Filippidou

      Sevasti Filippidou answered on 30 Nov 2020: last edited 30 Nov 2020 8:27 am

      The Perseverance rover, like the rovers we sent to Mars before, Spirit and Curiosity, are not returning back: They are staying there to collect information on how the surface and sub-surface of Mars looks like, to prepare us for a future mission: the Mars Sample return mission. For the latter, the rover won’t come back either, but it will be able to send us samples of martian rocks and soils to study them and investigate if there is life in/on it!

    • Photo: Ben Pritchard

      Ben Pritchard answered on 30 Nov 2020:

      The Perseverance rover was launched on July 30th 2020. The rover itself won’t return to Earth. This is a very difficult task as you’d have to build a rocket and launchpad on Mars to get the rover back into space above Mars! Maybe you can help do that in the future!
      The rover is collecting rock samples and storing them in tubes that may one day be collected and returned to Earth. Scientists and Engineers are working right now on that space craft to collect and return those samples back to Earth!

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