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Samples of Mars rocks that will be collected by a new robot, due to be launched on Thursday, should not be sent to Earth until 2031, the US space agency NASA confirmed on Tuesday.
On Monday, NASA validated, in a press conference, the launch on Thursday of the North American space base of Cape Canaveral, Florida, of the robotic vehicle Perseverance, which is due to land on February 18, 2021 on the surface of Mars, from where it will collect samples of rock and dust from the planet that may contain signs of past microbial life.
The samples, stored in tubes, will be left on the Martian surface and later retrieved by another robot, on a joint mission between NASA and European counterpart ESA, scheduled to launch in 2026.
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