The Martian rover collected a rock sample on its second try
NASA’s Perseverance rover has lived up to its name by successfully cacheing its first sample of Martian rock on Monday 6 September, after a failed attempt back in August. To prevent a second disappointment, the rover used its CacheCam to visually confirm there was Martian material in the sample tube after drilling. Another sample was acquired from the same rock on 8 September.
The ultimate goal of the mission is to learn how Mars’s climate changed over time, as well as looking for signs of past life by cacheing samples of rock that will be returned to Earth by a future mission. Perseverance is currently exploring Jezero Crater, which was once home to an ancient lake. It’s uncertain how long the lake persisted or when it disappeared, but once the samples have been returned to Earth, geologists will be able to accurately date when they were created.
“These samples have high value for future laboratory analysis back on Earth,” says Dr Mitch Schulte, NASA’s mission programme scientist. “One day, we may be able to work out the sequence and timing of the environmental conditions that this rock’s minerals represent. This will help answer the question of the history and stability of liquid water on Mars.”
The rover’s next sample site will be from South Séítah, a series of ridges and sand dunes 200m away. This region is expected to be much older, giving a window onto a different era of Mars’s history. mars.nasa.gov/mars2020
Comment by Chris Lintott
The plan to retrieve this and Perseverance’s other samples starts with a joint NASA and ESA mission to touch down near to Perseverance in 2026.
An as-yet-undesigned rover will bustle about collecting samples left by Perseverance, and return them to a rocket that’s also still on the drawing board. That rocket lifts the samples into low Mars orbit, to be met by another new spacecraft, which returns the samples to Earth by 2031.
That’s three new spacecraft attempting a feat unmatched by anything since Apollo, at a time when NASA and ESA are both stretched in different directions.
I struggle to believe it will happen on any sensible timescale. If it does, it’ll be because the thought of the samples Perseverance is collecting – sitting there, ready but out of reach – is too tempting to resist. Mars’s answers are waiting for us now if we can afford to go and get them.
Chris Lintott co-presents The Sky at Night