Q&A with Michel Denis, ExoMars flight director

After crystallizing a partnership to retrieve samples from the surface of Mars and return them to Earth, NASA and European Space Agency officials are seeking government funding commitments before the end of this year to carry out a multibillion-dollar robotic mission that could depart Earth with a pair of rocket launches as soon as 2026.

NASA’s Curiosity rover has returned a stunning image of the sun dipping behind a distant ridge from a vista inside Mars’s Gale Crater, only the Martian sunset spectacle appears blue instead of the reddish hues seen on Earth.

Cameras mounted on United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket show the fiery ride into space for NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover after taking off from Florida’s Space Coast.