After about six weeks of work, NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars deposited the tenth soil sample on the deposit, which serves as a backup: should the rover not itself manage to bring the remaining soil samples to a future lander, which transports them to Earth , these would be picked instead. They are located in an area that the US space agency has dubbed “Three Forks”. The rover itself can now devote itself to research again and is supposed to climb the nearby slope.
Backup for the actual plan
Those in charge of the mission Researchers assume sothat the samples collected and now deposited represent an “excellent cross-section” of the geological processes that took place shortly after the formation of the crater four billion years ago. In addition, Perseverance has placed an atmosphere sample and a tube that can be used to determine whether the others have been contaminated by material brought from Earth. All were deposited in a zigzag pattern and about five to 15 meters apart, NASA explains. In addition, the exact positions have been meticulously recorded so that the samples can be found even when they are covered in dust.
Since the end of December, Perseverance has been preparing the “Mars Sample Return” mission, which NASA is planning with ESA, by storing the soil samples. In 2028, a lander is to be sent to Mars, which is to touch down near the location of Perseverance. The rover is then supposed to bring the remaining sample containers to him and stow them in a small space capsule, which will then be launched with a rocket. In orbit, it is then to be collected by another space probe and sent to Earth. In the event that Perseverance is no longer able to do so, the lander will carry small helicopters, which are otherwise supposed to collect the now deposited samples at the “Three Forks” depot.
The exact storage locations
Perseverance landed on Mars in February 2021. The rover is to search for traces of possible life in a former delta. In front of its foothills he has put down the samples, now he is to climb the former delta again. Perseverance is accompanied by the small helicopter Ingenuity. It should actually only prove that motorized aircraft can take off from Mars at all. However, he mastered this with flying colors and has not yet been deactivated as a result. Perseverance’s soil samples could be the first samples from another planet’s surface to be studied on Earth.
(mho)
