page_title: Sample-return mission
section_title: First missions
hierarchical_section_title: Sample-return mission / Sample-return missions / First missions
caption_attribution_description: NASA Ames Research Center visitor center, Mountain View, California
context_page_description: A sample-return mission is a spacecraft mission with the goal of collecting and returning samples from an extraterrestrial location to Earth for analysis. Sample-return missions may bring back merely atoms and molecules or a deposit of complex compounds such as loose material and rocks. These samples may be obtained in a number of ways, such as soil and rock excavation or a collector array used for capturing particles of solar wind or cometary debris.
  To date, samples of Moon rock from Earth's Moon have been collected by robotic and crewed missions, the comet Wild 2 and the asteroid 25143 Itokawa have been visited by a robotic spacecraft which returned samples to Earth, and samples of the solar wind have been returned by the robotic Genesis mission. Samples from the asteroid 162173 Ryugu have been obtained and are in transit back to Earth.
  In addition to sample-return missions, samples from three identified non-terrestrial bodies have been collected by means other than sample-return missions: samples from the Moon in the form of Lunar meteorites, samples from Mars in the form of Martian meteorites, and samples from Vesta in the form of HED meteorites.
context_section_description: The Apollo program returned over 382 kg (842 lb) of lunar rocks and regolith (including lunar 'soil') to the Lunar Receiving Laboratory in Houston. Today, 75% of the samples are stored at the Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility built in 1979. In July 1969, Apollo 11 achieved the first successful sample return from another Solar System body. It returned approximately 22 kilograms (49 lb) of Lunar surface material. This was followed by 34 kilograms (75 lb) of material from Apollo 12, 42.8 kilograms (94 lb) of material from Apollo 14, 76.7 kilograms (169 lb) of material from Apollo 15, 94.3 kilograms (208 lb) of material from Apollo 16, and 110.4 kilograms (243 lb) of material from Apollo 17.
  One of the most significant advances in sample-return missions occurred in 1970 when the robotic Soviet mission known as Luna 16 successfully returned 101 grams (3.6 oz) of lunar soil. Likewise, Luna 20 returned 55 grams (1.9 oz) in 1974, and Luna 24 returned 170 grams (6.0 oz) in 1976. Although they recovered far less than the Apollo missions, they did this fully automatically. Apart from these three successes, other attempts under the Luna programme failed. The first two missions were intended to outstrip Apollo 11 and were undertaken shortly before them in June and July 1969: Luna E-8-5 No. 402 failed at start, and Luna 15 crashed on the Moon. Later, other sample-return missions failed: Kosmos 300 and Kosmos 305 in 1969, Luna E-8-5 No. 405 in 1970, Luna E-8-5M No. 412 in 1975 at unsuccessful launches, and Luna 18 in 1971 and Luna 23 in 1974 at unsuccessful landings on the Moon.
  In 1970, the Soviet Union planned for a 1975 first Martian sample-return mission in the Mars 5NM project. This mission was planned to use an N1 rocket, but as this rocket never flew successfully, the mission evolved into the Mars 5M project, which would use a double launch with the smaller Proton rocket and an assembly at a Salyut space station. This Mars 5M mission was planned for 1979, but got canceled in 1977 due to technical problems and complexity; all hardware was ordered destroyed.
caption: Moon rock from Apollo 15 interpretive sign.
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