There are precious Mars samples on the Red Planet and they won't be disturbed by dust, wind or darkness.
NASA's Perseverance rover has been dropping material on the surface of Mars in order to be ready for a future sample return mission. Perseverance has a set of samples with it. The backup surface tubes will be brought to the return rocket if the rover can't carry the samples in its belly.
Researchers on Earth will be able to scrutinize the tubed samples for signatures of life. Since the fetch mission isn't expected to land until the 2030s, officials at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have heard of public concerns about wind or dust hurting the tubes, or making the cache difficult to retrieve.
There is a series of evidence showing why the tubes won't travel far and how NASA is tracking their deposit locations.
There are amazing photos from the Perseverance rover's first year on Mars.
The Red Planet has gentle gusts unlike the fictional wind storm depicted at the start of "The Martian" Mars wind is limited to picking up sand grains due to its thin atmosphere.
The Perseverance account said that the winds around here can pick up speed, but they don't pick up a lot of stuff. Wind is not a threat for nuclear powered missions. There is only a thin layer of dust covering the machinery on NASA's Mars rover, which is still running after 10 Earth years.
Dust on solar panels can pose a long-term threat to exploration as they slowly choke off the supply to solar power. The end of more than one solar-powered explorer was spelled by the dust.
Mars robots can be saved from death by dust.
What about something smaller, sitting low on the surface? See this ribbon cable leading to @NASAInSight’s seismometer? After four years: a thin coat of dust, but easy to spot. (The pile of dirt you see over part of it is only there because InSight purposely put it there.) pic.twitter.com/UdpHVY18eADecember 23, 2022
You can see more.
Tubes lying low on the surface are expected to be easy to spot based on previous footage. After four Earth years lying on the Red Planet ground, the cables were dusty, but still recognizable.
"Not only do we expect the sample tubes not to be covered up, but I'm also very careful documenting exactly where I put them down," the Perseverance account said. It shouldn't be a problem to go back to them later.
Around 2031 is when the backup mission is expected to arrive. If funding for the sample return mission holds, there will be several chances to send a mission out there before 2040.
The co-author of Why Am I Taller is Elizabeth Howell. A book about space medicine is in the works. Follow us on social media, like us on Facebook (opens in new tab)
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