NASA and Other Nations Start Planning Mars Soil Return Mission

NASA and the space agencies of Europe, Canada, and Japan, to name a few, have begun preliminary work planning a Mars mission to return soil samples, set to launch in the next decade. The group recently met and is giving an open invitation to all space-faring nations to take part in the collaboration. The possibility of returning samples would allow scientists to do much more in depth analysis of soil composition and also testing for biological presence. The article gave no indication of a set timeframe for the mission.