“Following an examination of the agency’s ambitious Mars Sample Return plan, the board’s report concludes that NASA is prepared for the campaign, building on decades of scientific advancements and technical progress in Mars exploration,” NASA said in a statement on Tuesday.

We're ready to undertake a new campaign to return the first samples from Mars. This groundbreaking partnership with @ESA will build on decades of scientific advancements and technical progress in Mars exploration: https://t.co/Yrc2Gy1P6H pic.twitter.com/FEifWiYM3U

— NASA (@NASA) November 10, 2020

The process of bringing back samples from Mars will be a long one. The first part involves the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover launched in July. The rover is halfway on its path to the planet. The Perseverance Rover equipped with a coring drill and sample tubes will store the rocks in collection tubes after extraction.

Few of the rocks collected will then be picked up by ESA’s “fetch” rover. The next process includes the ESA rover delivering the rock samples to the NASA-provided MARS Ascent vehicle, which will launch into Mars’ orbit. The process doesn’t end there as again ESA would come into play. An ESA-provided Earth Return Orbiter will take these samples from the MARS Ascent vehicle and then bring them back to Earth sometime in the 2030s.

I’m proud to be the first leg of Mars Sample Return. Things are looking good for @NASA and @ESA to bring pristine samples of Martian rocks back to Earth in the future. https://t.co/vdsPrDMg23 #CountdownToMars pic.twitter.com/eZyn4M7BIM

— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) November 10, 2020

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said that Mars Sample Return is something NASA needs to do as a leading member of the global community.

The sample return from Mars will be crucial turning point in understanding key astrobiology questions about the red planet- getting a step closer to the eventual goal of sending humans to Mars.

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The scare of biological contamination

NASA chief Jim Bridenstine has recently revealed that the space agency is committed to safeguarding other space bodies from contamination during upcoming probes including the much crucial Artemis mission.

“We will protect scientific discoveries and the Earth’s environment while enabling dynamic human exploration and commercial innovation on the Moon and Mars,” wrote Bridenstine on Twitter.

NEWS: We are updating @NASA’s policies to match our goals and capabilities. We will protect scientific discoveries and the Earth’s environment, while enabling dynamic human exploration and commercial innovation on the Moon and Mars. More: https://t.co/4lytWlSDyi

— Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) July 9, 2020

According to experts, if humans introduce earthly microbes to distant planets during exploration, it will negatively impact our search of aliens that might be thriving in these space bodies. In the same manner, NASA is quite bothered about the introduction of space germs on earth once astronauts land back on the blue planet after the completion of the mission.

If everything goes well, NASA will send the next man and the first woman to the Moon by 2024. The ultimate aim of this mission is to establish a sustainable human presence in the lunar surface, which will help the space agency to carry out the upcoming Mars mission with ease.

Will NASA discover aliens in the upcoming Mars mission?

A few months back, NASA chief scientist Jim Green had claimed that alien life in its microbial form, will be discovered on Mars soon. But the NASA scientist also made it clear that humanity is not ready to accept the realities surrounding alien life, as it will open up a new realm in front of human consciousness.

In the meantime, a section of conspiracy theorists strongly believe that NASA has already discovered alien life, and they are hiding the facts regarding extraterrestrial existence to avoid public panic.

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