A scene from Apple TV+'s "Invasion" Season 3
In the past fifteen years, five missions have returned samples of extraterrestrial material to Earth for analysis. These included missions that rendezvoused with Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs), like the Hayabusa 1 and 2 and the OSIRIS-REx missions, and the Chang'e-5 and -6 missions, which brought back samples from the far side of the Moon. In the coming years, China plans to return samples from 469219 Kamoʻoalewa with its Tianwen-2 mission. With all the extraterrestrial materials being returned to Earth for analysis, one could argue that we are entering a "golden age of sample-return missions."
