The Mars Rover is called Perseverence, and now NASA is bringing samples back from the Red Planet ...

Added: 2026-04-30

[00:00:02]This red dirt will be the most expensive substance known to mankind if we can bring it back from Mars. [music] It will take three missions to collect and retrieve less than 1 kg. NASA's independent review board projected the total Mars sample return mission at nearly 9 billion dollars.

[00:00:22]But that only gets us to a landing in the desert, not studying the samples, which will likely push costs into the double-digit billions.

[00:00:31]The Apollo moon rocks came back to Earth more than 50 years ago and remain important to science today.

[00:00:37]If this little amount of Martian dirt makes it back to Earth, we will have a final cost, but in the end, the value may be priceless.