World · 18 d ago
A Mars rock may hold signs of ancient life, but NASA has no way to bring it home yet
The Perseverance rover collected a sample called Sapphire Canyon in the Jezero crater, where a lake existed more than three billion years ago. Scientists call it a potential biosignature.
What we know
- Spots hold vivianite and greigite
- Such minerals can come from microbial life
Not yet
- Whether life made them
- What the lab analysis would show
Dark leopard spots in the rock contain iron minerals that microbes can produce on Earth, but the same patterns can also form through chemistry alone.
The rover's instruments cannot settle the question, and the NASA and European Space Agency plan to return the samples proved too costly and complex. NASA dropped the original plan without a full replacement.
Getting Mars rock to Earth
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2028
China plans to launch Tianwen-3
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2031
China aims to bring the first Mars samples to Earth
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2037
A private proposal would return all 30 Perseverance samples
China plans to launch its Tianwen-3 mission in 2028 and bring Mars rock to Earth by 2031. Private companies propose returning all 30 Perseverance samples by 2037 for less than US$3 billion.
