Mars Tethered Sample Return (1989) http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png

In 1989, planetary scientist Alan Stern proposed a novel, bare-bones approach to Mars sample collection: that a Mars-orbiting spacecraft lower a "collection platform" on a tether to an altitude of 50 kilometers above the martian surface during one of the planet's seasonal dust storms.



via Wired Top Stories http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/IelXITQG6U0/