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

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.
 
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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.
 
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.
 
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]
 
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