LifeSpringsMars is a new, low-cost mission concept for a light-and-nimble sample return mission to Mars that can be completed in a single launch from Earth. By returning to the Columbia Hills, previously visited by the Spirit rover, we can minimise mission costs and mission failure risk by utilising pre-existing geoscience information to target sample materials. The prime mission target is to search for signs of ancient life in nodular opaline silica sinter with digitate protrusions that were deposited from active hot springs. Secondary mission targets include a range of volcanic rocks and regolith that span a long part of early Mars' evolution.
