Nasa and ESA to bring back soil from Mars in attempt to find out if it can support alien life

'A sample would provide a critical leap forward in our understanding of Mars’s potential to harbour life'

A view of the surface of Mars released by NASA on March 7, 2017, shows viscous, lobate flow features commonly found at the bases of slopes in the mid-latitudes of Mars, and are often associated with gullies (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona/Handout)

Nasa and the European Space Agency are to bring Martian rocks back to Earth in a daring plan to understand whether the planet could support alien life.

Retrieving soil samples from the red planet could be a breakthrough in our understanding of whether it has the potential to support life. But it will also be an incredibly difficult and complex mission, requiring a series of launches and complex navigation of space.

The two space agencies have now signed a statement of intent to launch such a mission, so that they can be examined back on Earth.

We have already sent things to Mars: the Curiosity rover, for instance, has been trundling around the planet examining its rocks in an attempt to understand more about it. But it would be more useful to send things back, so that we can look at them in more detail back on Earth.

Bringing them back will not only mean that we can look at them using far more advanced techniques, but also allow us to re-examine them in the future as our techniques become more advanced.

Actually doing that, however, will be a major undertaking. We have never completed a round-trip to a planet, and have never taken off from another world either.

In all, it will require at least three missions to be sent up from Mars. First, a Nasa rover will head to the planet and collect up to 31 different samples; a second mission will go and collect those samples and place them in a special vehicle that would rocket them up into Mars orbit; last of all, a spacecraft will fly to Mars and catch those samples, bringing them back and then dropping back down in the US.

Once they arrive, they will be pored over for clues about Mars and about our own planet, too. Experts have described them as perhaps one of the most tantalising samples that a scientist could possibly see – the first time that we will ever have brought something back from another planet.

“Previous Mars missions revealed ancient streambeds and the right chemistry that could have supported microbial life on the Red Planet,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA. “A sample would provide a critical leap forward in our understanding of Mars’s potential to harbour life.

“I look forward to connecting and collaborating with international and commercial partners on tackling the exciting technological challenges ahead—that would allow us to bring home a sample of Mars.”

ESA’s director of human and robotic exploration agreed that the mission was going to be difficult – but that it could provide stunning new insights into Mars and the Earth.

“A Mars sample return mission is a tantalising but achievable vision that lies at the intersection of many good reasons to explore space," he said.

“There is no question that for a planetary scientist, the chance to bring pristine, carefully chosen samples of the Red Planet back to Earth for examination using the best facilities is a mouth-watering prospect. Reconstructing the history of Mars and answering questions of its past are only two areas of discovery that will be dramatically advanced by such a mission.

“The challenges of going to Mars and back demand that they are addressed by an international and commercial partnership – the best of the best. At ESA, with our 22 member states and further cooperating partners, international cooperation is part of our DNA.”