Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to you're comparing one apple to two hundred oranges

And eight hundred pounds of rocks

While the Mars Rovers carefully point microscopes and instruments at rocks and dirt, the Apollo missions returned hundreds of pounds of samples to Earth for detailed examination in many labs.

Granted, some robot/return vehicle can be built to do similar sample recovery. The Russians did it, but they only brought back a total of about a pound of material.

The point is that the trade-offs are more complicated than simple cost.

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