The researchers hope that after the samples are returned to Earth, they can also find traces of life in the rocks.
NASA’s all-new rover has been studying the red planet for a year and a half, for the first time last December he managed to find organic matter. Since then Perseverance has collected several additional samples from the Jezero Crater, which was one billions of years ago it was the mouth of a river with a lot of water, so if there has ever been life on Mars, it offers the best place to look for it. In a press conference on Thursday, Thomas Zurbuchen, head of the science program of the US space agency, said that Perseverance is currently measuring and collecting samples in an area of the crater where there are many more sedimentary rocks, so they have recently managed to collect several particularly promising samples.
As the New Scientist newsletter explains, the so-called Skinner Ridge region is covered with a large amount of layered sedimentary rock, which, according to the researchers’ hypothesis, may have been carried there by water from a distance of hundreds of kilometers. Perseverance instruments have already detected the presence of aromatic hydrocarbons in the collected samples, as it is certain that they also contain clayey minerals and sulphates. David Shuster, a researcher at the University of Berkeley, said in this regard that the existence of the latter two greatly increases the chances that the collected sample retains traces of previous life, although he obviously added that this can only be discovered after the the samples were returned to the ground.
Because of this according to the latest news it can only happen in 2033, when NASA will have the help of the European Space Agency. Plans have already changed a lot since Perseverance arrived, partly due to the fact that both the Mars rover and the Ingenuity helicopter were sent to the planet with it. it turned out to be much more reliable, as NASA hoped. According to calculations, Perseverance will still be in good enough condition by 2030 to deliver the collected samples to the lander itself, which will arrive on the celestial body in two Ingenuity-like helicopters instead of the other rover included in the original plans. These helicopters will also be equipped with wheels and arms to receive rock sample containers from Perseverance, but if the rover doesn’t break down by then, the helicopters may be assigned some other task.
The champions then leave the planet in the form of a special mission, such as … unless Elon Musk beats them with Starship – this will be the first time a rocket will take off from Mars, not Earth. The Mars Ascent Vehicle orbits the planet and awaits another spacecraft (Earth Return Orbiter), essential for the success of the mission, which brings the samples back to Earth, and then brings them back to the planet with the help of a landing unit (Earth Entry Vehicle). ESA has a very important role in the project, since in addition to developing the robotic arm that takes samples from Perseverance on Mars, it will also design and build the spacecraft that will bring the rocks back to Earth; According to CNN, the preliminary design phase of the Earth Return Orbiter could begin in October and begin its journey to the red planet in the mid-1920s.
Regardless of collecting rock samples, Perseverance has done a lot of useful work on Mars over the past 19 months, as in addition to confirming many of the researchers’ hypotheses about the planet, it has managed to produce significant amounts of oxygen by the carbon-rich atmosphere of the celestial body, and with the Ingenuity helicopter, he certainly set the next missions on a whole new basis.
(Cover image: NASA / CNES / CNRS / LANL)
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