NASA's Mars rover will soon embark on an extremely special mission.Perseverance will begin collecting its first rock sample in the early hours Friday, August 6. This is a significant step towards a larger project to bring Mars material to Earth.The six-wheeled vehicle that arrived on Mars in April made its way to the Cratered Floor Fractured Rough.NASA claims it may contain Jezeros' deepest and oldest layers of bedrock. This could help answer the burning question: Did any form of life ever exist on this faraway planet?This is the target for my first core sampling. This rock could be the oldest that I ever sample. It will be a great starting point for my rock collection. #SamplingMars Read more on whats ahead: https://t.co/rQk2fWVKgx pic.twitter.com/DyjIbOFcGu NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) August 5, 2021Bobby Braun, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who is responsible for the Perseverance mission, stated that returning samples from Mars has been a goal of planetary exploration ever since its inception. This moment has been a focus for many engineers and scientists around the world, including me, for decades. When I was a high school student, these plans inspired me to pursue an aerospace engineering education. This quest consumed my first ten years of my career as a NASA engineer.Braun points out that Perseverance's sophisticated onboard tools enable it to perform a multitude of scientific investigations on its own, but some research (e.g. geochronology through Isotope-dating), requires more advanced equipment that is only available on Earth. You want to find out how old Mars really is? Gotta bring back samples, Braun says. Braun says that the detailed history of water, climate and the possibility for past life on Mars is important. Sample analysis is required in a laboratory here on Earth.JPL aims to collect 38 samples of rock from a variety of geologic units. Perseverance will core and seal the material before it is cached and transported back to Earth by a subsequent mission.Louise Jandura (chief engineer for sampling, caching and navigation at JPL), stated that Perseverance commands will be sent later today and the waiting starts.Jandura said, "The data will start to trickle in the middle of the evening and the team will wake up anxiously waiting for the first bits information about how things have been up to that point." The wait will continue well into tomorrow, until the last bits are down.Perseverance has been promised an update by the team on Friday afternoon.Editors' Recommendations
