Washington: Lockheed Martin’s spatial division won a NASA contract to build the rocket that will return the first samples of Roche Mars to the Earth in the 2030s, said Monday.
The “small light rocket” will be the first to take off from another planet, bringing back “rock samples, sediments and the surface atmosphere of the red planet,” Nasa said in a statement.

The Nasa’s Perseverance Rover collects samples from various Martian areas since the landing of the neighbor’s neighbor a year ago.

The objective of the mission is to find traces of old life on the red planet. But these samples will have to be analyzed in the planet’s laboratories, capable of more sophisticated tests than anything that can be done on Mars.

The samples will be collected and then launched on Earth in a complex operation in which the Lockheed Martin rocket will be a key element.

The contract of this “Mars Ascension Vehicle” has a potential value of $ 194 million, according to NASA.

“The pieces gather to bring home the first samples from another planet. Once on earth, they can be studied by tools at the cutting edge of technology too complex to transport in space,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator for NASA Headquarters Science in Washington.

According to the plans of the space agency, a mission will be launched in 2026 as soon as possible to send the mini-rocket to March, carrying another Rover responsible for collecting the samples left by perseverance.

Once the samples are placed in the rocket, it will take off and put them in orbit around March. They will then be captured by another vessel sent there to complete the last stage of the trip on Earth.

The latter ship, as well as the Rover that will recover the samples, are under development under the direction of the European Space Agency.