The Persevering Rover, which has been on the surface of Mars for just over half a year, has already begun all stages of its NASA-planned mission. At the beginning of August, scientists performed one of the most important tasks, such as digging a hole in the rock and collecting and securing a sample that will be delivered to Earth in the future (as part of another mission).
This play failed the first time. NASA discovered that after collecting the rock material, for unknown reasons, it did not end up in a titanium test tube. The space agency began to analyze the problem and decided to make another attempt. But this time, a different object was chosen from which the material was taken.
The Perseverance Chariot took a soil sample from Mars
The rock selected for research is called “Rochette” and is visible in the main image of this text. On September 1st, Perseverance made a hole in it (also shown in the photo above) and took a fit for containment. Over the next few days, the scientists tried to determine if the test tube actually contained enough rock powder.
For this purpose, the rover cameras took several pictures of the container. On one of them (below), inside the auger (at the same time as it digs a hole and takes rocky material), the collected sample is visible. As explained by NASA, the rock is inside the gold core and has a diameter slightly larger than a pencil.
Image of a sample taken from Mars taken on September 1, 2021 Foot. NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / MSSS
Unfortunately, the following photos did not confirm its existence due to the lack of sunlight. So the researchers decided to wait with the announcement of success. So far. On Sunday, NASA admitted that the sample had been collected correctly.
Success was confirmed after receiving the latest image (below) sent by the Perseverance rover:
The scientists will now begin analyzing the initial sample and then seal and secure the tube. The same will happen with the rock material from the next 42 wells that NASA wants to drill. After that, the Perseverance rover will leave the secured material on Mars, and in the future, the US Agency and the European Space Agency plan to send a mission to Mars to collect samples and return them to Earth with them.
