NASA’s Mars Rover has deposited its second rock sample for the historic sample return mission to Mars.
NASA’s Perseverance Rover has now deposited its second rock sample, after the first was deposited less than a week earlier for NASA’s Sample Return Program. Mars Sample Return is NASA’s program to return important scientific samples to Earth in an effort to study conditions on the Red Planet for the possibility of one day establishing a colony. NASA’s Mars Sample Return Program is a series of missions to retrieve scientific samples from Mars collected by the rover. One of the most ambitious space missions ever, the Mars Sample Return mission will allow scientists to study those samples using the latest technology here on Earth. A few days ago, the mission began with the first sample being collected and deposited at the capture site by NASA’s Perseverance Rover on December 21.
Now, another one has been deposited at the release site.
“Seeing our first sample on Earth is a wonderful culmination of our prime mission period, which ends January 6,” said Rick Welch, deputy project manager for Perseverance at JPL. We start our cache and also close this first chapter of the research.
NASA’s Perseverance Rover is collecting duplicate rock samples from rocks selected for this mission. The first sample, a core of an igneous rock nicknamed “Malay,” was collected from an area in Mars’ Jezero Crater called “South Setah” on Jan. 31 and deposited into a titanium test tube that currently sits on the surface of the Red Planet. Over the next two months, the rover will deposit a total of 10 tubes at the site called “Three Forks”.
The Sample Recovery Vehicle will launch to Mars in 2028, bringing with it a NASA-guided Mars rocket and a pair of small Mars helicopters that will land near Perseverance’s landing site in Jezero Crater. The Perseverance rover will transfer Mars samples to the sampling lander and deliver a set of test tube samples carried on board via the attached robotic arm.
Helicopters will provide sample capture assistance by collecting additional samples hidden on the surface by Perseverance. The Mars Ascent Vehicle will carry the sample tube container into orbit, making the MAV the first rocket to lift off from the surface of Mars.
According to NASA, the capture, containment and return system aboard the Earth Return Orbiter will capture the sample container and transport it to a clean area for return to Earth. Then, the Earth Orbital Return Vehicle will deliver the entry vehicle and all samples to Earth orbit, where they will separate and land safely on Earth.
