NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover is set to make history. The rover will be collecting its first-ever rock sample, taking a huge step towards sending Mars material back to Earth. The rover recently reached inside Mars’ Jezero Crater called the Cratered Floor Fractured Rough.
NASA believes the area could contain Jezero’s deepest and oldest layers of exposed bedrock, and so it could provide clues of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet if it ever existed.
Perseverance to reach new milestone
“Returning samples from Mars has been a horizon goal of planetary exploration since its inception,” said Bobby Braun of NASA’s JPL, who oversees the Perseverance mission. “This is a moment countless scientists and engineers around the globe — including myself — have been focused on for decades. As a student in high school, I was inspired to consider an aerospace engineering educational path by such plans. As a young engineer at NASA, this quest consumed the first decade of my career.”
He also notes that although the rover’s advanced onboard tools are good enough to carry out a slew of scientific investigations, some research needs more advanced equipment that’s only available back on Earth.
“Want to know specifically how old Mars is? Gotta bring back samples,” Braun says. “How about the detailed history of water, climate, or the potential for past life on Mars? Requires sample analysis in a lab here on Earth.”
Samples to be cached for pickup mission
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab plans to collect as many as 38 rock samples from different geologic units and surface materials. Samples drilled out by the rover will be sealed and cached for a later mission that will collect them and bring them back to Earth.
Louise Jandura, chief engineer for sampling and caching at JPL said in a blog post that “the commands to Perseverance will be sent and the waiting begins.” Jandura added, “The data will begin to trickle in during the middle of the night and the team will be up anxiously awaiting the first bits of information on how things have gone up to that point. The waiting will extend well into tomorrow until the final bits are down.”
