The Perseverance rover is on Mars.
The second rock sample tube was successfully dropped by Perseverance. Perseverance is the largest sample of Mars that has been dropped for a potential future mission to bring to Earth.
The second sample drop looks good. The Perseverance rover team wrote in a Friday update. The longest rock core I've taken to date is held in this tube.
There are amazing photos from the Perseverance's first year on Mars.
The longest rock core collected by Perseverance is a sample called "Mageik," which was drilled out of the rock "Amalik" this fall.
The tube is about the size of a marker and the rock core sample was measured at 7.36 cm. On Wednesday, Perseverance dropped its first tube.
Perseverance is dropping sealed tubes containing Mars rock samples, which look like miniature lightsabers, for potential collection by a future Mars Sample Return mission. Five years later, the sample tubes could be returned to Earth. If all goes according to plan, Perseverance or two small helicopters will deliver Mars samples to a lander that will then launch them into space so that a waitingorbiter can collect them for the trip back to Earth.
Perseverance is making backups. The rover kept one sample inside of it's body and the other in case of a backup. If the nuclear-powered will last long enough to reach the Mars Sample Return lander at the end of the decade, Perseverance will deliver the ones it carries.
The Perseverance rover was on Mars. The primary mission will last two years. The nuclear-powered rover celebrated its 10thanniversary on Mars in August.
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