The first chapter of the Mars Sample Return mission is coming to an end. The Perseverance robot deposited the first tube with a rock sample from the red planet on the surface of Mars. NASA announced that ten tubes will be deposited at the site, so that the samples will later return to Earth and be analyzed by scientists, in search of signs of life.
“Not to brag, but this is very important. By placing this tube in the ground, I have officially begun separating the samples that the Mars Sample Return will one day bring back to Earth,” NASA engineers wrote on Twitter.
To find signs of life on the red planet, the US space agency explains that Perseverance has already collected 17 samples and the plan is to, in the future, deliver them to a probe, which will place them aboard a small rocket for Mars orbit. In turn, another spacecraft will pick up the sample container and return it to Earth.
If Perseverance is unable to deliver its samples, a recovery helicopter will be used to end the mission.
“Seeing our first soil sample is a great culmination for our primary mission period, which ends on January 6,” said Rick Welch, Perseverance’s deputy project manager, noting that they are “closing the first chapter of the mission.” .
The “Mars Sample Return” mission began with the Perseverance robot, which traveled to Mars to collect rock samples in search of signs of life on the “red planet.”
The robot will search for (chemical) signs of past microbial life and characterize the geology and climate of the “red planet”, paving the way for human exploration.
“Perseverance” is NASA’s latest mission to collect samples and analyze Mars, following “Curiosity” which landed in August 2012.
Source: TSF
