Up until now, Nasa was planning on sending another rover to Mars to pick up the samples from Perseverance then bring them to a robotic lander equipped with its own rocket, called the Mars Ascent Vehicle.

This in turn would fire the samples into orbit where they would be collected by a European spaceship.

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Now, however, the second “Sample Fetch Rover” has been scrapped and Perseverance itself will deliver the precious cargo directly to the lander, which will use a robot arm to extract it.

But since Nasa always plans for contingencies, it has a backup plan in case Perseverance becomes immobilised.

The lander, which should launch from Earth in 2028 and land on Mars in mid-2030, will also carry two mini helicopters.

Perseverance brought with it its own helicopter, called Ingenuity, which carried out the first powered flight on another world, and has now made a total of 29 sorties.

The two new helicopters will be a little heavier, equipped with wheels to be able to move on the ground as well, and come with a small arm allowing them to recover the samples.

In this scenario, Perseverance would first drop the samples on the ground, the helicopters would pick them up, then place them next to the ascent vehicle.

The orbiter would be set to return to Earth in the Utah desert in 2033.

China aimed to send two spacecraft – one comprising a lander and ascent vehicle, and the other an orbiter and re-entry capsule – to the red planet in 2028, according to Sun Zezhou, chief designer of China’s first Mars mission Tianwen 1 as well as the Chang’e 3 and Chang’e 4 lunar missions.

The rocks will be delivered into Mars’ orbit and the mission will head home around October 2030, arriving on Earth in July 2031.

Additional reporting by Associated Press