Exploring Mars: The Perseverance Rover and the Sample Problem
Updated November 2, 2026.
NASA landed the Perseverance rover on Mars on February 18, 2021, in Jezero Crater, and the sources I reviewed say it is still operating. The plan to bring its samples back to Earth, however, lost its funding in 2026. Japan and China are preparing missions of their own.
Perseverance and the Jezero landing
Perseverance left Earth on July 30, 2020, on an Atlas V rocket. According to Wikipedia, it landed on February 18, 2021, and confirmation arrived at 3:55 p.m. Eastern time (20:55 UTC). The landing site was named Octavia E. Butler Landing.
The rover weighs 2,260 pounds (1,025 kg). Its job is to collect rocks and soil in sample tubes, which are stored for a future trip home. As of July 2025, 33 of its 43 tubes were filled. Ten remained.
The Ingenuity helicopter
Ingenuity traveled to Mars attached to the rover. It flew 72 times over three years, and NASA ended the mission on January 25, 2024. It was the first helicopter to fly on another planet.
What happened to the samples
The idea was to bring the tubes back to Earth in a joint NASA and European Space Agency mission called Mars Sample Return. The project was paused in November 2023. In April 2024, its $11 billion cost was judged unaffordable.
In January 2026, the federal spending bill left the program with no money, according to press reports. Sources disagree on whether it was formally canceled, but nearly all say the program as designed is finished. The tubes remain on Mars. There is no confirmed plan to retrieve them.
Other missions
Japan launched its MMX probe on October 20, 2026, aboard an H3 rocket. It will study Phobos, one of the moons of Mars, and arrival is expected in August 2027. Liftoff was at 3:41 p.m. Eastern time on October 19. A sample return, according to press reports, is expected in July 2031.
China is planning Tianwen-3, with a launch expected in 2028 and a sample return by 2031, according to one of the sources I read. That claim was not checked against an official source.
| Date | Milestone |
|---|---|
| July 30, 2020 | Perseverance launches |
| February 18, 2021 | Landing in Jezero Crater |
| January 25, 2024 | Ingenuity mission ends after 72 flights |
| January 2026 | Federal spending bill leaves Mars Sample Return unfunded |
| October 20, 2026 | Japan’s MMX probe launches |
| August 2027 (expected) | MMX arrives at Mars |
Frequently asked questions
When did Perseverance land on Mars?
On February 18, 2021, in Jezero Crater, after leaving Earth on July 30, 2020, aboard an Atlas V rocket.
What is Ingenuity?
A small helicopter that traveled with Perseverance and flew 72 times on another planet. NASA ended the mission on January 25, 2024.
Will the Mars samples come back to Earth?
There is no confirmed plan. The return mission ran out of funding in 2026, and the sample tubes are still stored on Mars.
What is the MMX mission?
A Japanese probe launched on October 20, 2026, that will travel to Phobos, a moon of Mars, and should bring samples back to Earth around 2031.
Is there life on Mars?
No one has found any so far. Perseverance is looking for signs of ancient life in rocks from a region that once held a lake.
Read next: NASA’s Artemis Program: Why America Is Going Back to the Moon and The International Space Station: How It Works and When It Ends.
Sources: Mars 2020, Wikipedia; NASA’s Mars Sample Return is dead, Live Science; MMX lifts off to Mars’s moon Phobos, ESA.
Featured image: NASA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
