The international Mars Exploration community has been planning to return samples from Mars for many years; the next decade should see the plans becoming a reality. Mars Sample Return (MSR) requires a series of missions, first to collect the samples, then to return them to Earth, whilst preventing the contamination of both Earth and Mars. The first mission in the campaign, Mars 2020, will land at Jezero Crater in early 2021; samples should return to Earth sometime after 2032. The information to be derived from analysis of martian samples in terrestrial laboratories equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation is more than recompense for the difficulties of the MSR campaign. Results from analyses of returned samples will enable increased understanding of martian geological (and possibly biological) evolution. They will facilitate preparations for human exploration of Mars and by providing a second set of absolute ages for a planetary surface will validate (or otherwise) application of the lunar crater-age scale throughout the Solar System.

中文翻译：

---

用返回的样本探索火星

国际火星探索界多年来一直计划从火星返回样本；下一个十年应该会看到这些计划成为现实。火星样本返回 (MSR) 需要一系列任务，首先收集样本，然后将它们返回地球，同时防止地球和火星受到污染。该战役的第一个任务“火星 2020”将于 2021 年初降落在杰泽罗陨石坑；样本应该在 2032 年后的某个时候返回地球。在配备了最先进仪器的地面实验室中对火星样本进行分析所获得的信息足以弥补 MSR 活动的困难。返回样本的分析结果将有助于加深对火星地质（以及可能的生物）演化的了解。