NASA's Perseverance Rover has succeeded in drilling and capturing a rock core from the Red Planet, after a failed attempt last month. NASA says this is a significant step towards NASA's goal to return the rock sample from Red Planet to Earth to examine for signs of ancient microbial activity.
Perseverance, or "Percy" as it is known to its friends, made its latest drill attempt Wednesday (Sept. 1) after choosing a large, thick-looking, rock that NASA researchers called "Rochette".
The boulder is perched on a ridge that overlooks the Jezero crater floor, where it has survived the elements for millions of years.
This is exactly what Perseverance was looking for. The Perseverance team's first attempt at collecting a rock core several week ago failed. The rock sample was too crumbly to be collected and the rover lost it all.
New images from the Rochette drilling operation prove that there weren't any surprise disappearances.
Kenneth A. Farley is a professor of geochemistry at California Institute of Technology and the Perseverance project scientist. He said that "you can see a beautiful core rock" in the rover’s collection tube.
Perseverance's collection tube holds a sample of Martian rock core about the size of a pencil. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Perseverance will keep the sample, which is roughly as thick as a pencil, in its stomach for the duration of the mission. It will then explore the dried-up ruins from ancient rivers in Jezero.
According to The Times, Percy will eventually place all its samples on the Martian floor in a decade. Then, another unbuilt rover will follow them to a small rocket.
The rocket will transport the samples back to Earth where scientists can analyse them in detail. This is something Perseverance couldn't do.
This return trip is unlikely to happen before the 2030s. Percy, now one more rock sample lighter, will continue his triumphant cruise along the Red Planet.
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