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With Perseverance already collecting 27 samples, NASA is studying using SpaceX's Starship to beat China, which intends to bring material from Mars by 2031 with the Tianwen-3 mission.
When it comes to exploring space, the competition between nations and private companies is a veritable cosmic marathon. But NASA doesn’t just want to run—it wants to win. Now, in partnership with the private sector, the agency has opened the door to using Elon Musk’s Starship to bring samples from Mars back to Earth before China does.
Why does NASA want to bring samples back from Mars?
The mission to retrieve Martian samples is not just a matter of prestige. It is a unique opportunity to investigate the geological history of Mars, unravel mysteries about its evolution and, who knows, find evidence of past life.
Since 2020, the Perseverance rover has been collecting soil and rock samples, storing them in 27 sealed tubes. These carefully selected samples await a future mission that will bring them back to Earth for detailed analysis.
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The race against China: who will get there first?
The United States had been leading the race, but a setback in NASA's budget gave China room to move forward. With the Tianwen-3 mission, the Chinese plan to launch a spacecraft in 2028 and bring back samples from Mars by 2031.
Meanwhile, NASA is working to decide what its ultimate approach will be, with a decision not expected until 2026. The pressure is on – after all, losing this race would be a serious blow to American space leadership.
Two approaches to the Mars Sample Return mission
To bring back Martian samples, NASA is considering two options:
Sky Crane: A technology already tested on missions like Curiosity and Perseverance, which use retrorockets to land softly on Mars.
Commercial ship: This is where the possibility of partnerships with private companies comes in, such as SpaceX, which proposes the use of Starship.
Each approach has its advantages, but the time factor can be decisive. Elon Musk plans to send five Starships to Mars as early as 2026, promising to meet unbeatable deadlines.
Starship's role in NASA's ambition
Starship is not just a spacecraft – it is a true space exploration behemoth. Designed to carry large payloads, it offers a potentially faster and more efficient solution for the Mars Sample Return mission.
If NASA opts for Starship, it would mark a historic moment of collaboration between the public and private sectors, signaling a new era in space exploration.
Why are these samples so important to science?
Bringing samples from Mars back to Earth isn’t just a symbolic victory. It’s like holding a piece of the Red Planet’s past in our hands. Analyzing these rocks and sediments could help answer crucial questions:
Did Mars ever have life?
Why has the planet become an inhospitable desert?
What lessons can we learn about planetary evolution?
These studies could provide valuable insights for future manned missions, paving the way for humans to set foot on Mars.
The competition between NASA and China to retrieve Martian samples is more than a technological dispute—it’s a milestone in the history of space exploration. The decision to open the doors to Elon Musk’s Starship shows that NASA is willing to innovate and take risks to maintain its leadership.
What is at stake is not it's just first place in this race, but also the future of planetary science and humanity's next big step into the cosmos. The question now is: who will bring the samples back first? And what will these little capsules from Mars tell us about the universe?
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