NASA will soon send orders to the Perseverance rover to take rock samples in Cratered Floor Fractured Rough, Jezero crater, Mars.
Explorer rover Mars NASA Perseverance will soon begin a very special task. NASA official site disclose, the rover will collect its first rock samples, marking a significant step in a major project to bring the first Martian material to Earth.
In recent days, Perseverance has headed to a location inside the Jezero crater, Mars called the Fractured Rough Floor Crater. The site contains the deepest and most ancient bedrock layers in Jezero. This sample is believed to help answer the question of whether there is a form of life on the planet.
“Returning samples from Mars has been a goal of the planetary exploration horizon since its inception,” said Bobby Braun of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which oversees the Perseverance mission. “This is a moment that has been the focus of many scientists and engineers around the world – myself included – for decades.”
Braun explained, although the advanced tools embedded in Perseverance can carry out scientific investigations on their own, some research requires equipment that is only available in laboratories on Earth. The samples must be brought to Earth to further analyze the specifics of the age of Mars, the detailed history of the water and climate that existed there, and the potential for past life.
This is it—the target for my first core sample. This rock may be the oldest I get to sample, so it’ll be a great start to my rock collection. #SamplingMars
Read more on what’s ahead: https://t.co/rQk2fWVKgx pic.twitter.com/DyjIbOFcGu
– NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) August 5, 2021
JPL plans to collect 38 rock samples from various geological units and surface materials. Materials will be drilled by Perseverance to be cored, sealed, and sealed.cache by the rover, until the next mission, which is to collect samples and transport them back to Earth.
Chief Sampling Technician Louise Jandura said the sampling order and caching for Perseverance will be sent in the afternoon on August 6 or around the morning tomorrow (7/8) if converted to Indonesian time. Jandura added, the data will start flowing since midnight, and the team will wait for the results.
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