Sample return mission
A space mission that collects material from another world and brings it back to Earth for study.
Meteorites are free samples, but we usually don't know exactly where they came from, and they can be altered by their fiery fall and by Earth's air and water. A sample return mission solves both problems. It collects rock, soil or dust from a known place, seals it and delivers it to Earth for analysis in clean laboratories, where it can be studied with the best instruments for decades.
The Apollo astronauts brought back about 382 kilograms of Moon rock between 1969 and 1972, and Soviet Luna robots added smaller amounts. Later missions collected comet dust (Stardust, returned 2006), asteroid grains from Itokawa (Hayabusa, 2010), material from Ryugu (Hayabusa2, 2020) and Bennu (OSIRIS-REx, 2023), and new lunar samples from China's Chang'e 5 (2020) and Chang'e 6, the first from the Moon's far side (2024).
These samples help identify meteorites. Hayabusa proved common stony asteroids are made of LL chondrite material, while Ryugu and Bennu resemble the rare CI chondrites, such as Orgueil, but are much less contaminated by Earth. Returned samples are kept under strict care, usually in nitrogen-filled cabinets, and the original material is never handled with bare hands.
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Level: Explorer Ages 10 and up