NASA's Perseverance Rover is equipped with the most advanced science lab ever brought to another planet, so it will be able to thoroughly analyze any rocks and soil that it digs up. However, NASA also ...

An earlier concept for a Mars ascent vehicle, which would transport samples collected from the Martian surface into orbit. Those samples would be returned to Earth by another spacecraft.

The Mars Ascent Vehicle, seen here in an earlier NASA design, will launch from the surface of Mars to place samples collected by the Perseverance rover into orbit. Credit: NASA WASHINGTON — NASA has ...

NASA announced it had awarded Lockheed Martin Space a contract to build the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), a rocket that can collect ground samples from Mars and send them back to Earth. NASA says the ...