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Tag Archives: rover
First EVER elements are discovered on the Moon’s South Pole: India’s Chandrayaan-3 rover confirms the presence – Daily Mail
- First EVER elements are discovered on the Moon’s South Pole: India’s Chandrayaan-3 rover confirms the presence Daily Mail
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- Vikran Rover Confirms The Presence Of Sulphur | Different Technique Used To Trace Element | NewsX NewsX
- Another first for India on moon’s south pole as sulphur presence confirmed South China Morning Post
- India’s Chandrayaan-3 moon mission has already made an incredible discovery a week after landing on eerie s… The US Sun
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NASA’s Perseverance Rover Completes Mars Sample Depot – Captures Amazing Variety of Martian Geology
Perseverance’s Three Forks Sample Depot Selfie: NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took a selfie with several of the 10 sample tubes it deposited at a sample depot it is creating within an area of Jezero Crater nicknamed “Three Forks.” Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Ten sample tubes, capturing an amazing variety of Martian geology, have been deposited on
Throughout its science campaigns, the rover has been taking a pair of samples from rocks the mission team deems scientifically significant. One sample from each pair taken so far now sits in the carefully arranged depot in the “Three Forks” region of Jezero Crater. The depot samples will serve as a backup set while the other half remain inside Perseverance, which would be the primary means to convey samples to a Sample Retrieval Lander as part of the campaign.
NASA Sample Retrieval Lander: This illustration shows a concept for a proposed NASA Sample Retrieval Lander that would carry a small rocket (about 10 feet, or 3 meters, tall) called the Mars Ascent Vehicle to the Martian surface. After being loaded with sealed tubes containing samples of Martian rocks and soil collected by NASA’s Perseverance rover, the rocket would launch into Mars orbit. The samples would then be ferried to Earth for detailed analysis. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Mission scientists believe the igneous and sedimentary rock cores provide an excellent cross-section of the geologic processes that took place in Jezero shortly after the crater’s formation almost 4 billion years ago. The rover also deposited an atmospheric sample and what’s called a “witness” tube, which is used to determine if samples being collected might be contaminated with materials that traveled with the rover from Earth.
The titanium tubes were deposited on the surface in an intricate zigzag pattern, with each sample about 15 to 50 feet (5 to 15 meters) apart from one another to ensure they could be safely recovered. Adding time to the depot-creation process, the team needed to precisely map the location of each 7-inch-long (18.6-centimeter-long) tube and glove (adapter) combination so that the samples could be found even if covered with dust. The depot is on flat ground near the base of the raised, fan-shaped ancient river delta that formed long ago when a river flowed into a lake there.
“With the Three Forks depot in our rearview mirror, Perseverance is now headed up the delta,” said Rick Welch, Perseverance’s deputy project manager at 
WATSON Documents Final Tube Dropped at ‘Three Forks’ Sample Depot: NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover dropped the last of 10 tubes at the “Three Forks” sample depot on Jan. 28, 2023, the 690th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Next Science Campaign
Passing the Rocky Top outcrop represents the end of the rover’s Delta Front Campaign and the beginning of the rover’s Delta Top Campaign because of the geologic transition that takes place at that level.
“We found that from the base of the delta up to the level where Rocky Top is located, the rocks appear to have been deposited in a lake environment,” said Ken Farley, Perseverance project scientist at Caltech. “And those just above Rocky Top appear to have been created in or at the end of a Martian river flowing into the lake. As we ascend the delta into a river setting, we expect to move into rocks that are composed of larger grains – from sand to large boulders. Those materials likely originated in rocks outside of Jezero, eroded and then washed into the crater.”
Perseverance’s ‘Three Forks’ Sample Depot Map: This map shows where NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover dropped each of its 10 samples – one half of every pair taken so far – so that a future mission could pick them up. After five weeks of work, the sample depot was completed Jan. 24, 2023, the 687th day, or sol, of the mission. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
One of the first stops the rover will make during the new science campaign is at a location the science team calls the “Curvilinear Unit.” Essentially a Martian sandbar, the unit is made of sediment that eons ago was deposited in a bend in one of Jezero’s inflowing river channels. The science team believes the Curvilinear Unit will be an excellent location to hunt for intriguing outcrops of sandstone and perhaps mudstone, and to get a glimpse at the geological processes beyond the walls of Jezero Crater.
More About the Mission
One of the key objectives for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including caching samples that may contain signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will analyze the planet’s geology and past climate, lay the foundation for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to gather Martian rock and soil samples.
Later NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA, will send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet.
JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.
Perseverance rover spots Ingenuity helicopter on sand dune
NASA’s Perseverance rover just caught another glimpse of its pioneering robotic cousin.
The car-sized Perseverance snapped a photo recently of the Ingenuity helicopter as the 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) rotorcraft sat atop a Red Planet sand dune.
“The #MarsHelicopter and I are closer together than we’ve been in a while, and guess who I spotted resting on a dune between flights. Can you believe Ingenuity is gearing up for Flight #39?” the Perseverance team said via Twitter (opens in new tab) on Wednesday (Jan. 11), in a post that featured a photo of the little chopper.
Related: Soar over Mars rover tracks with Ingenuity helicopter (video)
Ingenuity and Perseverance landed together inside Mars’ Jezero Crater in February 2021. The 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero hosted a big lake and a river delta long ago, and Perseverance is scouring the area for signs of ancient life on Mars.
The six-wheeled robot is also collecting and caching dozens of samples for future return to Earth. For the past few weeks, Perseverance has been caching some of its sample tubes in a “depot” in a patch of Jezero’s floor that the mission team calls Three Forks.
Perseverance has so far deposited six of a planned 10 sample tubes (opens in new tab) in the Three Forks depot, which serves as a backup in case the rover isn’t healthy enough to haul material to a future NASA lander later this decade. A rocket aboard that lander will launch the samples to Mars orbit, where they’ll be picked up by a European spacecraft and hauled back to Earth. The samples could land here as early as 2033.
The depot samples are doubles; Perseverance is keeping a set of material drilled from the same target rocks on its body. If need be, two Ingenuity-like helicopters that will launch with the future lander will fly over to Three Forks and grab the sample tubes there one by one.
Ingenuity is currently serving as a scout for Perseverance, helping the rover team pick the best routes through the rough Jezero landscape and identify promising outcrops for in-depth study.
This work is part of the chopper’s extended mission. Not long after landing, Ingenuity aced its primary five-flight campaign, showing that powered flight is possible in the thin Martian atmosphere.
Ingenuity conducted its 39th Martian flight on Wednesday, covering 459 feet (140 meters) of ground over the course of nearly 79 seconds. To date, the chopper has flown a total of 25,690 feet (7,830 m) on Mars and stayed airborne for more than 64 minutes, according to the mission’s flight log (opens in new tab).
Perseverance has captured footage of Ingenuity before. The rover snapped photos of the chopper just after it deployed onto Jezero’s floor, for example, and also recorded video of Ingenuity’s 13th flight, which took place in September 2021.
Mike Wall is the author of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) and on Facebook (opens in new tab).
China’s First Mission to Mars Seems to Be Struggling
China’s Zhurong rover went into hibernation mode in May 2022 to avoid the harsh winter season on Mars, but communication issues, both with the rover and orbiter, suggest something’s now very wrong with the mission.
The six-wheeled Martian rover was scheduled to wake up in late December, but it hasn’t been heard from since entering into its scheduled hibernation mode, unnamed sources told the South China Morning Post, as first reported by SpaceNews.
Zhurong landed on Mars on May 14, 2021 as China’s first Martian mission. The rover was sent to Mars with the Tianwen-1 orbiter, which relays data between the rover and ground controllers on Earth. About a year after roaming and investigating the Red Planet, the rover entered hibernation—a kind of low power safe mode—in anticipation of the Martian winter, when temperatures reach around -4 degrees Fahrenheit (-20 degrees Celsius) during the day and -148 F (-100 C) at night. The winter season on Mars also includes sand and dust storms, which block the rover’s solar panels and prevent it from collecting sunlight to generate power. For its own protection, Zhurong hunkered down in a dormant state for those chilly, dusty months on Mars.
By late December, which marks the beginning of Martian spring, the rover was supposed to autonomously resume its activities. However, the China National Space Administration has yet to send out any updates regarding the rover, in what is an ominous sign. The rover’s solar panels could be covered by dust, reducing its ability to generate power and preventing it from turning back on, according to the SCMP’s sources. It’s worth noting that NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rovers are able to power through Mars’s winter season using a radioisotope power system.
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And it may not just be the rover that’s in trouble. The mission’s Tianwen-1 orbiter has also reportedly gone silent. Scott Tilley, professor at the Florida Institute of Technology, noted on Twitter that the radio signals between the ground station and Tianwen-1 indicate that mission controllers may have stopped trying to communicate with the orbiter after failing to achieve contact. This is unfortunate, as China planned to perform aerobraking tests in 2023 with Tianwen-1 in anticipation of a future Mars sample return mission.
It’s possible that the problem with the orbiter is related to the problem with Zhurong, but we’ll have to wait for China to finally say something official on the matter. In the event we don’t hear back from the rover and its orbital companion, China’s mission to Mars will still be deemed a success, as it was initially designed to last for three months on the Red Planet but managed to live on for over a year.
More: China’s Zhurong Rover Captures Remarkable Sights and Sounds on Mars
China’s Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter and rover appear to be in trouble
HELSINKI — The two spacecraft making up China’s first interplanetary mission are both suffering issues, with the rover potentially lost on the surface after winter hibernation.
The Zhurong Mars rover has been hibernating on the Martian surface since May 18 last year and was expected to resume activity in December, around the time of the Spring equinox in the northern hemisphere.
However no announcement of establishing contact with the rover has been made. The South China Morning Post reported Jan. 7, citing sources that do not wish to be named, that teams on Earth have yet to receive a signal from Zhurong.
The Zhurong rover landed in Mars’s Utopia Planitia region in May 2021 but entered a period of hibernation to ride out winter, when both temperatures and solar radiation levels are too low for the solar-powered rover to operate.
The rover was expected to autonomously resume activities once it can generate sufficient energy from solar power and when temperatures reach around minus 15 degrees Celsius.
Zhurong entered hibernation when local temperatures were around minus 20 degrees, according to the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, after the autumn equinox in late February. Conditions should already by more favorable following the Spring equinox on Dec. 26. Mars has an axial tilt of around 25 degrees, meaning it has has similar seasonal variations to Earth during its orbit around the sun.
While there has so far been no official comment, the rover may have been impacted by sand storms in the area, which could reduce the levels of energy generation. The Tianwen-1 orbiter noted storms around the landing area in March and April 2021.
Zhurong has active means of removing dust from its four butterfly wing solar arrays, but would be unable to perform this operation while hibernating. The arrays also have an anti-dust coating and can tilt to maximize light collection.
Zhurong had a primary mission lifetime of three Earth months but operated for just over one Earth year in Utopia Planitia, traveling at least 1,921 meters south from its landing site. It was seeking out geomorphologic targets such as mud volcanoes during its extended mission.
The rover has returned detailed insights into the local layered subsurface with its ground-penetrating radar and discovered evidence of relatively recent aqueous activity in the area. The rover landing was also used by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson as a warning to Congress as to China’s competitive threat to American leadership in human spaceflight.
Meanwhile, Zhurong continues its journey and has covered 1,921 metres since landing in May 2021. However, with winter in the northern hemisphere, Zhurong is receiving less solar energy and is adapting accordingly to constraints. New image below from NaTeCam pic.twitter.com/z6oJCw43DX
— Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) May 6, 2022
Meanwhile the Tianwen-1 orbiter has been tasked with assessing the area and attempting to contact the rover. Teams are however also having trouble receiving data from the orbiter, according to SCMP.
Radio amateurs have also noted issues with attempts for ground stations to lock onto the orbiter.
#TIANWEN1 ground station seems to have given up as the spacecraft passes the Doppler reversal and is rapidly approaching periareion. The distinct difference in the rapidly changing curve and the slower strong curve suggests to me the g/s is expecting the s/c in a different orbit. pic.twitter.com/9UtiO9GfrD
— Scott Tilley (@coastal8049) January 9, 2023
Tianwen-1 was scheduled to conduct aerobraking tests late last year as part of preparation for a Mars sample return mission potentially launching later this decade. It is unknown if the tests have been conducted and potentially impacted the orbiter. Chinese space authorities have yet to comment on the situation.
The Tianwen-1 orbiter was initially used to assess the pre-selected landing zones for Zhurong. It was then used primarily as a communications relay for Zhurong during the rover’s primary mission phase, before then switching to focus more on its own science objectives.
It completed a mapping of the Martian surface with a medium-resolution camera by June 2022, and also completed its assigned goals for its six science payloads.
China launched its Tianwen-1 mission to Mars in July 2020 with the combination of the Tianwen-1 orbiter and Zhurong rover entering Mars orbit in February 2021.
Both Tianwen-1 and Zhurong had entered a standby mode in 2021 when the Earth and Mars were orbiting at opposite sides of the sun, causing a communications blackout.
China plans to launch the Tianwen-2 joint near-Earth asteroid sample-return and main belt comet rendezvous mission around 2025.
NASA Rover Discovers Gemstone On Mars
A terrestrial opal from Australia.
gettyA research team using new methods to analyze data from NASA’s Curiosity, a rover operating on Mars since 2012, was able to independently verify that fracture halos contained opal, on Earth a gemstone formed by the alteration of silica by water.
The study finds that the vast subsurface fracture networks would have provided conditions that were potentially more habitable than those on the surface.
In 2012, NASA sent the Curiosity rover to Mars to explore Gale Crater, a large impact basin with a massive, layered mountain in the middle. As Curiosity has traversed along the Mars surface, researchers have discovered light-toned rocks surrounding fractures that criss-cross certain parts of the Martian landscape, sometimes extending out far into the horizon of rover imagery. Recent work finds that these widespread halo networks served as one of the last, if not the last, water-rich environments in a modern era of Gale Crater. This water-rich environment in the subsurface would have also provided more habitable conditions when conditions on the surface were likely much more harsh.
Selfie of Curiosity rover with Martian rocks in the background.
Associated PressAs part of a new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, led by former Arizona State University NewSpace Postdoctoral Fellow Travis Gabriel, now a research physicist for the U.S. government, archival data from several instruments were examined and showed considerable anomalies near light-toned rocks earlier in the traverse. By happenstance, Curiosity rover drove right over one of these fracture halos many years ago, long before Gabriel and ASU graduate student and co-author Sean Czarnecki joined the rover team.
Looking at the old images, they saw a huge expanse of fracture halos extending far into the distance. By applying new methods for analyzing instrument data, the research team found something curious. These halos not only looked like halos found much later in the mission, in completely different rock units, but were similar in their composition: a whole lot of silica and water.
“Our new analysis of archival data showed striking similarity between all of the fracture halos we’ve observed much later in the mission,” Gabriel said. “Seeing that these fracture networks were so widespread and likely chock-full of opal was incredible.”
Observing drill cores taken at the Buckskin and Greenhorn drill sites many years into the mission, scientists confirmed that these light-toned rocks were very unique compared to anything the team had seen before.
In addition to looking back through archival data, Gabriel and his team went searching for opportunities to study these light-toned rocks again. Once they arrived at the Lubango drill site, a bright-toned fracture halo, Gabriel led a dedicated measurement campaign using the rover’s instruments, confirming the opal-rich composition.
Opal-rich halos as seen crosscutting the bedrock extend into the subsurface of Mars.
Malin Space Science Systems/NASA/JPL-CaltechThe discovery of opal is noteworthy as it can form in scenarios where silica is in solution with water, a similar process to dissolving sugar or salt in water. If there is too much salt, or conditions change, it begins to settle at the bottom. On Earth, silica falls out of solution in places like lake and ocean bottoms and can form in hot springs and geysers, somewhat similar to the environments at Yellowstone National Park.
Since scientists expect that this opal in Gale Crater was formed in a modern Mars era, these subsurface networks of fractures could have been far more habitable than the harsh modern-day conditions at the surface.
“Given the widespread fracture networks discovered in Gale Crater, it’s reasonable to expect that these potentially habitable subsurface conditions extended to many other regions of Gale Crater as well, and perhaps in other regions of Mars,” Gabriel said. “These environments would have formed long after the ancient lakes in Gale Crater dried up.”
The significance of finding opal on Mars will have advantages for future astronauts, and exploration efforts could take advantage of these widespread water resources. Opal itself is made up of predominantly two components: silica and water – with a water content ranging from 3 to 21 percent by weight – with minor amounts of impurities such as iron. This means that if you grind it down and apply heat, the opal releases its water. In a previous study, Gabriel and other Curiosity rover scientists demonstrated this exact process. Combined with growing evidence from satellite data that shows the presence of opal elsewhere on Mars, these resilient materials may be a great resource for future exploration activities elsewhere on Mars.
Material provided by the Arizona State University.
Perseverance rover marks 1 Mars year on Red Planet
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover is wrapping up its prime mission on the Red Planet.
The car-sized Perseverance rover landed on the floor of Mars’ Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021, kicking off an ambitious surface mission designed to last one Red Planet year, which is about 687 Earth days.
That time is now up; the Mars calendar turned for Perseverance on Friday (Jan. 6). But don’t fret: The six-wheeled robot will transition seamlessly into an extended mission on Saturday (Jan. 7).
Related: 12 amazing photos from the Perseverance rover’s 1st Earth year on Mars
Perseverance has two main tasks on the Red Planet. The rover is hunting for possible signs of Mars life on the floor of the 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero, which hosted a big lake and a river delta billions of years ago. Perseverance is also collecting and caching dozens of samples, which a joint NASA-European Space Agency (ESA) campaign will bring to Earth for detailed study in the early 2030s, if all goes according to plan.
That campaign will launch a rocket-toting NASA lander as well as an ESA Earth-return orbiter to the Red Planet in the mid to late 2020s. The plan calls for Perseverance to drive its samples over to the lander; the rocket will then launch the precious cargo to Mars orbit, where the ESA probe will snag it and haul the material back to Earth.
Perseverance has made a lot of progress on the sampling front to date. The rover has already filled up and sealed 18 of its 38 titanium sampling tubes (opens in new tab) as well as three of its five “witness tubes,” which will help mission team members assess the cleanliness of Perseverance’s sampling system.
And the rover has begun caching samples, too, to date dropping four of a planned 10 tubes on a patch of Jezero’s floor that the mission team calls Three Forks. This depot is a backup, to cover for the possibility that Perseverance won’t be able to ferry its samples to the lander when the time comes. (The rover is in good shape now, but there’s no guarantee its health will hold through the end of the decade.)
In that case, two small helicopters that will launch aboard the lander will fetch the sample tubes from the depot one by one.
With this hedge in mind, the mission team has been collecting two samples from each of its target rocks. Perseverance is keeping one set on board and caching the other set.
The fetch helicopters will be based heavily on Ingenuity, the 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) chopper that traveled to Mars with Perseverance.
Ingenuity’s main job was to show that aerial exploration is possible on Mars despite the planet’s thin atmosphere, which is just 1% as dense as that of Earth at sea level. The little rotorcraft quickly achieved that goal during a five-flight demonstration campaign and is now serving as a scout for Perseverance on an ambitious extended mission.
Ingenuity now has 37 flights under its belt, which together have covered a total of 4.7 miles (7.6 kilometers). Perseverance, for its part, has racked up nearly 8.7 miles (14.0 km) of off-Earth driving, and that total will climb considerably during its extended mission.
After it finishes dropping samples at the Three Forks depot, Perseverance will head for the top of Jezero’s ancient river delta, likely finishing the climb in February. The rover will then explore the region for the next eight months or so, looking for, among other things, rocks that were washed into the crater by Jezero’s ancient river.
“The Delta Top Campaign is our opportunity to get a glimpse at the geological process beyond the walls of Jezero Crater,” Perseverance deputy project scientist Katie Stack Morgan, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said in a statement last month (opens in new tab).
“Billions of years ago, a raging river carried debris and boulders from miles beyond the walls of Jezero,” she said. “We are going to explore these ancient river deposits and obtain samples from their long-traveled boulders and rocks.”
Mike Wall is the author of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab).
Mars Perseverance rover drops biggest early Christmas gift for 2033 yet
NASA’s Perseverance rover keeps dropping early Christmas presents on Mars.
On Friday (Dec. 23), NASA announced that Perseverance successfully dropped its second rock sample tube on the Martian surface. And while it’s not the first Mars sample Perseverance has dropped for a potential future mission to bring to Earth in 2033, it certainly is the biggest.
“My second sample drop is looking good!” NASA’s Perseverance rover team wrote in a Twitter update (opens in new tab) Friday. “This tube holds a piece of sedimentary rock from the edge of the ancient river delta here — the longest rock core I’ve taken to date.”
Related: 12 amazing photos from the Perseverance’s 1st year on Mars
The longest rock core collected by Perseverance is a sample called “Mageik,” which the rover drilled out of the rock “Amalik” this fall from the “Enchanted Lake” region of ancient delta in its Jezero Crater landing site.
“The tube itself is about the size of a marker, and I measured the rock core sample inside at 7.36 cm (about 2.9 inches),” NASA wrote as Perseverance on Twitter (opens in new tab). Perseverance dropped its first sample tube at a nearby spot on Wednesday (Dec. 21).
Perseverance is dropping 10 sealed tubes containing Mars rock samples, which resemble miniature lightsabers from Star Wars, for potential collection by a future Mars Sample Return mission. That mission and an orbiter could launch to Mars by 2028 and return the sample tubes to Earth five years later. If all goes according to plan, Perseverance or two small helicopters will deliver Mars samples to a lander that would then launch them into space so that a waiting orbiter can collect them for the trip back to Earth.
The samples Perseverance is dropping are backups. The rover collected twin samples at each drill site, storing one inside its body while dropping the other in case a backup is needed. Perseverance is expected to deliver the ones it carries to the waiting lander if the nuclear-powered lasts long enough to reach the Mars Sample Return lander at the end of the decade.
NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on Mars in February 2021. It’s primary mission will last two years, but NASA hopes the rover could live much longer. Its predecessor, the nuclear-powered Curiosity rover, recently celebrated its 10th anniversary on Mars in August.
Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik (opens in new tab). Follow us @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab), Facebook (opens in new tab) and Instagram (opens in new tab).
NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover Deposits First Sample on Martian Surface for Possible Return to Earth
NASA’s Perseverance rover deposited the first of several samples onto the Martian surface on December 21, 2022, the 653rd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
The sample tube, which is filled with rock, will be one of 10 forming a depot of tubes that the
Perseverance Deposits Its First Sample on the Martian Surface: Once the Perseverance team confirmed the first sample tube was on the surface, they positioned the WATSON camera located at the end of the rover’s robotic arm to peer beneath the rover, checking to be sure that the tube hadn’t rolled into the path of the wheels. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Perseverance has been taking duplicate samples from rock targets the mission selects. The rover currently has the other 17 samples (including one atmospheric sample) taken so far in its belly. Based on the architecture of the Mars Sample Return campaign, the rover would deliver samples to a future robotic lander. The lander would, in turn, use a robotic arm to place the samples in a containment capsule aboard a small rocket that would blast off to Mars orbit, where another spacecraft would capture the sample container and return it safely to Earth.
The depot will serve as a backup if Perseverance can’t deliver its samples. In that case, a pair of Sample Recovery Helicopters would be called upon to finish the job.
Testing a Sample Drop in the Mars Yard: Engineers use OPTIMISM, a full-size replica of NASA’s Perseverance rover, to test how it will deposit its first sample tube on the Martian surface. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The first sample to drop was a chalk-size core of igneous rock informally named “Malay,” which was collected on January 31, 2022, in a region of Mars’ Jezero Crater called “South Séítah.” Perseverance’s complex Sampling and Caching System took almost an hour to retrieve the metal tube from inside the rover’s belly, view it one last time with its internal CacheCam, and drop the sample roughly 3 feet (89 centimeters) onto a carefully selected patch of Martian surface.
But the job wasn’t done for engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which built Perseverance and leads the mission. Once they confirmed the tube had dropped, the team positioned the WATSON camera located at the end of Perseverance’s 7-foot-long (2-meter-long) robotic arm to peer beneath the rover, checking to be sure that the tube hadn’t rolled into the path of the rover’s wheels.
OPTIMISM Sticks the Landing: Engineers react with surprise while testing how NASA’s Perseverance rover will deposit its sample tubes on the Martian surface. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
They also wanted to ensure the tube hadn’t landed in such a way that it was standing on its end (each tube has a flat end piece called a “glove” to make it easier to be picked up by future missions). That occurred less than 5% of the time during testing with Perseverance’s Earthly twin in
Bringing Mars Rock Samples Back to Earth: This short animation features key moments of NASA and ESA’s Mars Sample Return campaign, from landing on Mars and securing the sample tubes to launching them off the surface and ferrying them back to Earth. Credit: NASA/ESA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC/MSFC
More About the Mission
A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).
Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.
JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.