The U.S. Space Force's X-37B space plane is carrying a sample of material that could some day help NASA land cargo and crew on Mars.

The X-37B launched on its eighth mission on Aug. 21 atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Aboard the space plane were a number of experiments, including a laser communications system and the "highest-performing quantum inertial sensor ever tested in space," according to the U.S. Space Force. The sensor is a much more precise and resilient alternative to GPS that could allow spacecraft to determine their position even in GPS-denied environments.

But while these two emerging technologies got most of the attention, the X-37B was carrying another potentially revolutionary experiment. Aboard the secretive space plane wa

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