This paper presents a global overview of current, planned and proposed sample missions. At present, missions are in progress to return samples from asteroids, comets and the interstellar medium. More missions are planned to Mars and the asteroids. Future sample return missions include more targets including Europa, Mercury and Venus. This review identifies the need for developing a coordinated international system for the handling and safety certification of returned samples. Such a system will

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... provide added assurance to the public that all the participants in this new exploration arena have thought through the technical challenges and reached agreement on how to proceed.