The planet Mars has fascinated humans for centuries. But it is only in the last few decades that robotic orbiters, landers, and rovers have allowed us to explore the Red Planet in ever-increasing detail. Nevertheless, some of our biggest questions relating to the formation and planetary-scale evolution of Mars — including its geologic and climate evolution, the history of water and volatiles, and the potential for the development of life in its ancient past — can only be addressed by detailed analyses of carefully selected Martian samples in state-of-the-art Earth-based laboratories.

The campaign to return Mars samples to Earth is underway with the on-going collection of well-documented samples by the Perseverance rover. In this lecture, Meenakshi Wadhwa, director of the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University will talk about the samples that have been collected so far, those expected to be collected in the near future, and the scientific motivations for bringing these samples back to Earth.

This program will be presented in-person in the Planetarium at the National Air and Space Museum in DC and will be streamed live on YouTube. 

ASL Interpretation will be provided and live captioning on YouTube. If you require another access service to fully participate or have any questions about accessibility, please contact NASMPublicLectures@si.edu. To ensure the best experience, please try to contact us at your soonest convenience.

Lecture attendees are invited to arrive early at 7 pm to explore the second-floor galleries of the Museum, including the Kenneth C. Griffin Exploring the Planets Gallery and Destination Moon, prior to the lecture.

About the 2024 Exploring Space Lecture Series 

Aside from the meteorites that fall to Earth haphazardly, direct analysis of the materials of the solar system has required explorers—both human and robotic—to collect and return samples from the Moon, comets, asteroids, and one day other planets. The four lectures in this year’s series will spotlight the sample return missions that have helped us better understand the origin and evolution of the Earth and other planets. View all programs in the series.