Perseverance Collects Its First Rock Sample on Mars

Perseverance has now collected a rock pattern on Mars, the primary of round 35 that will probably be put aside for a future mission to gather and convey to Earth. NASA introduced the profitable assortment in a tweet this morning.

Should the rock samples get to Earth safely—Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s affiliate administrator for science, mentioned they’re slated to reach within the early 2030s—they’ll seemingly reveal an enormous quantity of details about Mars, together with particulars of the planet’s geology, at a proximity that scientists beforehand may solely dream of.

“I have been thinking about and preparing for this day for nearly 8 years now,” mentioned Louise Jandura, the chief engineer for sampling and caching at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a blog post. “It was a long, intense, challenging, and exhilarating road that resulted in the sophisticated robotic hardware that is Perseverance,” she added.

The sampled rock came from the sting of Mars’ Jezero Crater, the place a dried-up river delta followers out from the traditional lakebed. It’s the place Perseverance dramatically landed in February with the Ingenuity helicopter in tow, and the place each advanced automobiles have been poking round ever since.

NASA outlined the steps essential to extract the pattern in a press convention held late final month. First, the crew on Earth chosen the pattern website, the Cratered Floor Fractured Rough, a rugged stretch of rock a little lower than a mile from the touchdown website. Then, the rover was instructed to abrade the rock floor—principally scrape off the crud—and drill into the stone, pulling out a core and storing it away.

At the time of the convention, NASA scientists weren’t positive whether or not the tough consists of igneous or sedimentary rocks, which might require completely different geological processes to type—the previous being cooled, once-liquid rock spewed out by volcanoes, and the latter taking type from the fixed layering of sediments that ultimately compact, forming rock. Nature reported today that the rocks seem like igneous, in response to scientists’ first appears at photographs of the rock taken by Perseverance’s WATSON digital camera. The pattern is now safely inside considered one of Perseverance’s check tubes.

The rover will probably be busy gathering extra samples as its mission continues. Next up is the Séítah, an undulating sand dune vary that Ingenuity helicopter not too long ago flew over, and the Raised Ridges, one other close by formation. Around the flip of the 12 months, the rover will head to the Three Forks, the river delta on the crater’s edge, and the place scientists hope fossilized indicators of life might be hiding.

MORE: Here’s What’s Next for NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover