As rst has mentioned, details on how the Red Dragon would return from the Martian surface have so far been quite sketchy. However, the basic outline for a proposed sample return mission involves having a Mars Ascent Vehicle pop off the top of the Red Dragon capsule to get the payload into low Mars orbit. Once there it jettisons the ascent stage and ignites a second stage to place it into a trajectory for trans-Earth injection. Essentially, it&#x27;s packing a small two-stage rocket for the trip home. [1]<p>It&#x27;ll be interesting to find out if the payload capacity of the MAV is actually enough for a crewed capsule to be launched to rendezvous with an orbiting vessel (a la The Martian), or if that would require a much larger descent vehicle in the first place.<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.space.com&#x2F;24984-spacex-mars-mission-red-dragon.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.space.com&#x2F;24984-spacex-mars-mission-red-dragon.ht...</a>