Washington: NASA’s Perseverance rover on Tuesday completed the collection of the first Mars rock sample, a core from Jezero Crater slightly thicker than a pencil.
Mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California received data that confirmed the historic milestone. The US space agency has said this in a statement.
an airtight titanium sample tube encloses the core holding the first Mars rock sample. It is available for retrieval in the future.
Perseverance rover retrieved the rock sample at its second attempt on September 1. It had failed in its first attempt in early August. Perseverance, using its 2-metre-long robotic arm, drilled a hole on Mars, but could not succeed in its first attempt.
“Our Perseverance team is excited and proud. The system performed so well on Mars and took the first step for getting samples to Earth,” said Larry D. James, interim director of JPL.
The sample-taking process began on September 1. The rotary-percussive drill at the end of Perseverance’s robotic arm cored into a flat, briefcase-size Mars rock nicknamed “Rochette”.
After completing the coring process, the arm maneuvered the corer, bit, and sample tube. The rover’s Mastcam-Z camera instrument imaged the contents of the still-unsealed tube. It then transmitted the results back to Earth.
Mission controllers confirmed the cored Mars rock sample presence in the tube. After that, they sent a command to complete processing of the sample.
On Tuesday, at 12.34 a.m. EDT, Perseverance transferred first Mars rock sample tube serial number 266 and its Martian cargo into the rover’s interior to measure and image the rock core. It then hermetically sealed the container, took another image, and stored the tube.
“Getting the first sample under our belt is a huge milestone,” said Ken Farley, Perseverance Project Scientist at Caltech.
“When we get these samples back on Earth, they are going to tell us a great deal about some of the earliest chapters in the evolution of Mars.
But however geologically intriguing the contents of sample tube 266 will be, they won’t tell the complete story of this place. There is a lot of Jezero Crater left to explore, and we will continue our journey in the months and years ahead,” he added.
Through the Mars Sample Return campaign, NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) are planning a series of future missions to return the rover’s sample tubes to Earth for closer study. These samples would be the first set of scientifically identified and selected materials returned to our planet from another.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for the first human exploration mission to the Red Planet.
