Just shy of its second (Earth) anniversary on Mars, NASA’s Perseverance rover has completed a project that could secure its legacy. The backup sample depot in Jezero Crater is ready for a future mission to collect sample tubes and return them to Earth. It took just six weeks for the team to decide where to place the sample tubes, and now the tenth and final tube has been deposited.
Perseverance is brimming with cameras and scientific instruments, but it’s impossible to send everything scientists might want to. However, if you can get some bits of Mars back to Earth, there are almost unlimited tests and procedures to be completed. Perseverance is the first phase of a project that aims to do just that. The robot has an impressive sample caching system, complete with ultra-clean titanium tubes to hold the numbered and cataloged samples. At each site, Perseverance collected two samples. One of those remains in the belly of the rover, but now the backups are waiting in the “Three Forks” region in case they are needed.
The tubes were deposited in a zigzag pattern with between 15 and 50 feet (5 to 15 meters) of space between them. This is necessary to ensure safe and effective collection using the planned Sample Retrieval Lander, including a pair of helicopters based on the wildly successful Ingenuity design. NASA says the flying robots will have no trouble finding the tubes. Despite the planet’s frequent dust storms, very little material accumulates on the surface.
This map shows where NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover dropped each of its 10 samples – one half of every pair taken so far – so that a future mission could pick them up. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
We’re still several years away from the next phase of the Sample Return Campaign. NASA hopes to launch in the late 2020s, with samples returning to Earth around 2033. The mission also calls for an ESA Mars orbiter that will pick up the samples in the Mars Ascent Vehicle (basically a small rocket) and then head for Earth.
Initially, NASA planned to send another rover to pick up the samples, but this was canceled, and Perseverance is now the primary means of delivery. However, should Perseverance be unable to meet up with the Sample Retrieval Lander, the helicopters will visit the Three Forks depot to pick up the duplicate samples. Although, I would not be surprised if NASA and its partners at the European Space Agency find a way to collect the duplicates as well. You can never have too many pristine samples of Martian rocks.
As for Perseverance, it has almost finished the “Delta Front Campaign” that saw the rover exploring the floor of Jezero Crater around the ancient river delta. Now, the team is preparing to send Perseverance up through the previously mapped Hawksbill Gap, which will get it on top of the delta. This will begin the Delta Top Campaign, giving the rover a chance to examine geological formations that could feature evidence of ancient life. There will no doubt be more interesting rocks to drill into up there.
Now read:
- Perseverance Sends Back Weather Report on Its First Full Martian Year
- Perseverance Rover Collects First Samples of Martian Dirt
- Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Reaches Record Altitude on 35th Flight
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