What’s next?
The obvious endgame of the Perseverance mission is for scientists on Earth to get their hands on the Martin rock samples the rover has been collecting. Of course, Mars is over 200 million miles away at time of writing. The Mars Sample Return mission is as ambitious as it is expensive, currently clocking in at nearly $4.5 billion. It will involve a handful of spacecraft and will take at least a decade (emphasis on at least) to complete.
NASA and the European Space Agency are actively tinkering with the mission plan, so costs and timelines will almost certainly change. Let’s hope that the two (yes, not one but two) review boards established to manage the sample return program do their jobs well, and ensure the mission gets off the ground in a timely fashion.
Getting Martian rock samples to Earth would be the first time a piece of another planet is ever brought to our own, and would make the Martian material a lot more accessible for study. You know, whenever it actually happens.
