The rock core is now enclosed in an airtight titanium sample tube and will be available for recovery in the future.
NASA’s Perseverance rover has today completed the collection of the first sample of Martian rock, a core of the Jezero crater a little thicker than a pencil. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) mission controllers in Southern California received data confirming the historic milestone.
The core is now enclosed in an airtight titanium sample tube, which will allow it to be recovered in the future. Through the Mars Samples Return Campaign, NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) are planning a series of future missions to return the rover’s sample tubes to Earth for closer study. These samples would be the first set of scientifically identified and selected materials returned to our planet from another.
“NASA has a history of setting ambitious goals and then achieving them, reflecting our nation’s commitment to discovery and innovation,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “This is a major success and I can’t wait to see the amazing discoveries produced by Perseverance and our team.”
Along with identifying and collecting samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and dust) while looking for signs of ancient microscopic life, Perseverance’s mission includes studying the Jezero region to understand the geology and ancient habitability of the area. , as well as to characterize the past climate.
“For all of NASA’s science, this is truly a historic moment,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate science administrator at NASA’s Washington headquarters. “Just as the Apollo Moon missions demonstrated the enduring scientific value of returning samples from other worlds for analysis here on our planet, we will do the same with the samples that perseverance collects as part of our return program. of samples from Mars. Using the most sophisticated scientific instruments on Earth, we look forward to incredible discoveries in a wide range of scientific areas, including exploring the question of whether life once existed on Mars. ”
Perseverance’s first Mars rock sample is sealed inside the tube of the titanium container in this image taken by the camera of the rover’s sampling and caching system (known as CacheCam). Credits: NASA / JPL-Caltech. Full image and legend ›
First sample
The sampling process began on Wednesday, Sept. 1, when the rotary percussion drill at the end of Perseverance’s robotic arm became a suitcase-sized flat rock on Mars, nicknamed “Rochette.”
After completing the core drilling process, the arm maneuvered the core drill, drill bit and sample tube so that the rover’s Mastcam-Z camera instrument could imagine the contents of the still unsealed tube and transmit the results to Earth. After the mission controllers confirmed the presence of the core rock in the tube, they sent an order to complete the sample processing.
Today, at 12:34 p.m. EDT, Perseverance has transferred sample tube serial number 266 and its Martian payload inside the rover to measure and imagine the rock core. He then sealed the container, took another picture, and stored the tube.
“With more than 3,000 parts, the caching sampling and storage system is the most complex mechanism ever sent into space,” said Larry D. James, interim director of JPL. “Our Perseverance team is excited and proud to see the system work so well on Mars and take the first step to return samples to Earth. We also recognize that a global NASA team, industry partners, academics and space agencies internationals contributed and shared this historic success. “
First scientific campaign
Perseverance is currently exploring the rocky outcrops and rock blocks of “Artuby,” a more than 900-meter ridge line that borders two geologic units believed to contain the deepest and oldest layers of exposed parent rock from the Jezero crater.
“Getting the first sample available to us is a huge milestone,” said Ken Farley, a scientist on Caltech’s Perseverance project. “When we retrieve these samples from Earth, they will tell us a lot about some of the first chapters of the evolution of Mars. But as geologically fascinating as the contents of sample tube 266, they will not tell the full story of this place. There is a lot of Jezero crater left to explore and we will continue our journey in the coming months and years ”.
The rover’s initial scientific foray, spanning hundreds of suns (Martian days), will be complete when Perseverance returns to its landing site. By this time, the perseverance will have traveled between 2.5 and 5 kilometers between 1.6 and 3.1 miles and may have filled up to eight of its 43 sample tubes.
After that, Perseverance will travel north and then west, to the location of its second science campaign: the Jezero Crater Delta region. The delta is the fan-shaped remains of the place where an ancient river met a lake inside the crater. The region can be especially rich in clay minerals. On Earth, these minerals can preserve fossilized signs of ancient microscopic life and are often associated with biological processes.
Learn more about perseverance
A key goal for Perseverance’s mission to Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s past geology and climate, pave the way for human exploration of the red planet, and be the first mission to collect and hide Martian rock and regolith.
Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA, 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 approach to exploring the Moon to Mars, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for the first human exploration mission to the Red Planet.
JPL, which is managed by NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and managed the operations of the Perseverance rover.
For more information on perseverance:
mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/
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nasa.gov/perseverance
News media contacts
Karen Fox / Alana Johnson
NASA Headquarters, Washington
301-286-6284 / 202-358-1501
[email protected] / [email protected]
DC Agle
Reaction Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
818-393-9011
[email protected]