It would be cool if NASA worked with the Chinese agency to collect those cores using their rocket, it would be a win win.

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duskwuff 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Unfortunately, they can't:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Amendment

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Gagarin1917 an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Also they’re no where near each other. These Chinese rover cannot get there.

Also also, if China were to create a new mission to collect them, they would see their costs balloon to unsustainable levels as well, as the issue is how the mission is designed. The samples are all over the place and would need a rover specifically designed to collect them and return them to a launcher.

The US Mars sample return project was always half baked in the hopes that doing something would garner funding for the rest of the mission.

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NetMageSCW an hour ago | parent [-]

Not true - only ten samples were dropped off at a “depot” close to each other. The rest are on-board Perseverance and can be picked up all at once, which was always the primary plan.

	▲	Gagarin1917 40 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		The point is that they’d have to be picked up and retrieved at all, even from Perseverance. That alone is a separate multibillion dollar program just to do that.

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junofan 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> China stole design information regarding advanced thermonuclear weapons

Sounds like they blew it. What a shame.