NASA is swapping out its Sample Fetch Rover for two drones, similar to the Ingenuity Helicopter, to serve as backups to the Perseverance Rover in the Mars sample return campaign.
The sample return campaign begins with the Perseverance Rover, which has already been on Mars for over a year and, at press time, had sealed 11 samples to eventually send back to Earth. NASA plans to launch its Earth Return Orbiter in fall 2027 and its Sample Retrieval Lander in summer 2028.
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