Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (NASDAQ:RKLB) shares are trading higher premarket on Monday. The company disclosed that NASA has selected the company to conduct a study on retrieving rock samples from the Martian surface and returning them to Earth.

A mysterious black-and-white striped rock recently spotted on Mars is unlike any seen on the Red Planet before, which has NASA excited. The space agency's Perseverance rover caught sight of the "zebra rock" while driving across a mundane pebbly terrain on Mars' Jezero Crater on Sept.

Perseverance discovered a zebra rock on the Martian surface, and scientists are still trying to figure out where it came from.

NASA's Rapid Mission Design Studies for Mars Sample Return solicits industry proposals to carry out rapid studies of mission designs and mission elements capable of delivering samples collected by the Mars Perseverance rover from the surface of Mars to Earth.