page_title: Sample-return mission
section_title: 2010s
hierarchical_section_title: Sample-return mission / Sample-return missions / 2010s
caption_attribution_description: English: Artist's concept of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collecting a sample from asteroid 1999 RQ36.
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: In June 2010 the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Hayabusa probe returned asteroid samples to Earth after a rendezvous with (and a landing on) S-type asteroid 25143 Itokawa. In November 2010, scientists at the agency confirmed that, despite failure of the sampling device, the probe retrieved micrograms of dust from the asteroid, the first brought back to Earth in pristine condition.
  The Russian Fobos-Grunt was a failed sample-return mission designed to return samples from Phobos, one of the moons of Mars. It was launched on November 8, 2011, but failed to leave Earth orbit and crashed after several weeks into the southern Pacific Ocean.
  The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the improved Hayabusa2 space probe on December 3, 2014 and plans to return asteroid samples in 2020. Hayabusa2 arrived at the target  near-Earth C-type asteroid 162173 Ryugu (formerly designated 1999 JU₃) on 27 June 2018. It surveyed the asteroid for a year and a half and took samples. It left the asteroid in November 2019 and is expected to return to Earth in 6 December 2020.
  The OSIRIS-REx mission was launched in September 2016 on a mission to return samples from the asteroid 101955 Bennu. The samples are expected to enable scientists to learn more about the time before the birth of the Solar System, initial stages of planet formation, and the source of organic compounds that led to the formation of life. It reached the proximity of Bennu on 3 December 2018, where it began analyzing its surface for a target sample area over the next several months.  It is expected to return with its sample to Earth on 24 September 2023.
caption: Illustration of OSIRIS-REx collecting a sample from asteroid 1999 RQ36
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