NASA’s new Mars rover completed its first rock sampling, saving a tube of drilled rock that will be one of many that will be brought to Earth.
After an unsuccessful attempt last month, the Perseverance team confirmed last week’s successful drilling and harvesting after reviewing photos of the sample. NASA wanted to make sure the sample was secure inside a titanium tube, before sharing the news on Monday.
In early August, during the first sampling attempt, the Perseverance drilled into a much softer rock and the sample unexpectedly collapsed. Flight controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, then searched for harder rocks for the second attempt.
Perseverance arrived in February at Jezero Crater – where a lake bed and a river delta are believed to have existed billions of years ago – in search of rocks that may have evidence of ancient Martian life.
NASA plans to launch more space probes to retrieve the samples collected by Perseverance and bring them to Earth within a decade. The explorer has 40 more tubes available for future samples.
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