Since landed on Mars in February 2021o Perseverance rover has already collected 11 samples of Martian rocks and one from the planet’s atmosphere. As the mission progresses, the NASA is aligning plans for sending samples to Earth and recently announced that it has completed another phase of the Mars Sample Return Program.
According to the US space agency, during this phase, the team responsible for the program evaluated and refined the architecture needed to get the collected samples sent back to Earthin a process with the contribution of the European Space Agency (ESA).
Initially the plans foresaw that Perseverance to leave the samples on the Martian surface to be collected by a vehiclethe Sample Retrieval Lander, with the help of two instruments: the Sample Fetch Rover and the Sample Transfer Arm.
The instruments would then be used to transfer the samples to the Mars Ascent Vehicle, whose mission is to transport them to space.
According to the updated plans the Sample Fetch Rover will no longer be part of the mission, being replaced by two helicopterswith a design similar to the do Ingenuitywhich will help transport the samples.
With samples on boardprotected inside a container, the Mars Ascent Vehicle will depart for Spacethen launching them into Martian orbit. ESA’s Earth Return Obiter will pick up the container containing the samples, bringing it back to Earth.
With the release dates of Earth Return Orbiter and Sample Retrieval Lander scheduled for Fall 2027 and Summer 2028 respectively, samples collected by Perseverance are expected to reach Earth in 2033.
A NASA indicates that the Mars Sample Return program will enter the preliminary design phase in October this yearin a phase that will last close to a year and will focus on the development and creation of prototypes of the main components of the mission.
Until then, Perseverance will continue to Search for signs of ancient life on Mars. The rover’s cameras have been capturing a variety of Martian landscapes, but also some more intriguing items and recently photographed something that looks like some kind of martian spaghetti.
Click on the images for more details
Although NASA has yet to comment on the discovery most likely, the tangle of strange wires is one of the elements left over from the “seven minutes of terror” of the rover’s landing on Mars.
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