Read the latest positive news, breakthroughs, and inspiring stories about sample return mission, curated daily by BrightWire.
A spacecraft just launched on a groundbreaking journey to bring back the first-ever samples from Mars's mysterious moons. The mission could unlock secrets about how planets formed and even how life began.
A groundbreaking spacecraft launches Monday to collect the first-ever sample from Mars' moon Phobos and bring it home to Earth. The tiny 10-gram sample could solve a 4.5 billion-year-old mystery about how the Red Planet got its moons.
Japan is about to launch a groundbreaking mission to Mars that could bring back the first samples from the Red Planet's moons. The spacecraft will land on Phobos, deploy a rover, and return to Earth in 2031 with clues about how our solar system formed.
Scientists will finally learn whether Mars' mysterious moons are asteroid captures or debris from an ancient collision. A sample from Phobos will return to Earth in 2031, unlocking secrets about our solar system's early history.
Japan's spacecraft will attempt something never done before: collect samples from Mars' moon Phobos and bring them back to Earth. The mission launches October 19 after a two-year delay, with samples expected home in 2031.
After a 400-day journey across a billion kilometers, China's Tianwen-2 spacecraft just sent back the first close-up images of Kamo'oalewa, a tiny asteroid that shadows Earth's orbit around the sun. If successful, this mission could unlock secrets about how our solar system formed billions of years ago.
A Chinese spacecraft just captured the first close-up image of a mysterious asteroid that follows Earth like a tiny companion. After traveling 621 million miles over 400 days, Tianwen-2 is now preparing to bring samples of this cosmic neighbor back home.
China's Tianwen-2 spacecraft just arrived at a tiny asteroid that dances alongside Earth in a rare quasi-moon orbit. The mission will collect samples and solve the mystery of whether this strange space rock is actually a chunk of our own moon.
Japan's MMX spacecraft has reached its launch site, ready to bring back the first-ever samples from a Martian moon. If successful, the mission will help scientists solve a 4.5-billion-year-old mystery about how Mars formed.