While both options are more streamlined than the original plan, they each contain similar architecture, which requires landing a Mars Ascent Vehicle on the Martian surface. That vehicle will be loaded ...

Mashable's review of the proposal summaries in August 2024 showed many of the ideas focused on the Mars Ascent Vehicle, the rocket that would blast the samples off Mars and into space — a sign ...

For nearly half a century, NASA has been talking an awfully good game about its much-heralded Mars Sample Return (MSR) project. As long ago as 1978, the space agency requested funding to develop a ...

In either case, the mission’s launch vehicle, called the Mars Ascent Vehicle, will have to be smaller than previously planned. It will also use a nuclear power system instead of solar panels ...

along with the Mars Ascent Vehicle needed to blast the collected samples to orbit where the ESA spacecraft would capture and return them to Earth. As with option one, the timeframe for sample ...

"Americans are explorers, builders, innovators, entrepreneurs and pioneers. The spirit of the frontier is written into our ...

However, the Mars Ascent Vehicle, which will lift off from the Martian surface and deliver the samples to the orbiting capsule, will be smaller than previous designs. Additionally, past designs of the ...

Then two more spacecraft would travel to the surface of Mars. One would dispatch a rover to pick up the samples. The other, an ascent vehicle, would blast them back into space, to Mars orbit.