News NASA/ESA Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission.

[Notebook]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-43907326

The US and European space agencies are edging towards a joint mission to bring back rock and soil samples from Mars.
Nasa and Esa have signed a letter of intent that could lead to the first "round trip" to another planet.

 

[boogabooga]

Hopefully, it will go better than Phobos-Grunt.

 

[Notebook]

Could be a good idea, cheaper than a crew mission, and lots of parts to practice with.
Has there ever been a totally uncrewed rendezvous?

N.

 

[Urwumpe]

Could be a good idea, cheaper than a crew mission, and lots of parts to practice with.
Has there ever been a totally uncrewed rendezvous?

N.

Yes. But at a VERY small scale. And not successful.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DART_(satellite)

Also the Progress missions managed often to dock automatically, but the rendezvous has never been fully automatic, only the final approach.

 

[Notebook]

That's interesting, hadn't heard of it.

It has to totally autonomous if you are orbiting Mars, would be a far greater challenge than Earth.

N.

 

[Nicholas Kang]

The mission animation video by JPL. Looks like JPL is the NASA center that will collaborate with ESA in this mission.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie3-UwPLUho"]Bringing Mars Back To Earth - YouTube[/ame]