Rover Perseverance has prepared a repository with soil samples on Mars
Miscellaneous / / April 06, 2023
In fact, this is a backup in case something happens to Perseverance itself in the next ten years.
In just 5 weeks, NASA's Perseverance rover was able to create the first sample repository on another planet in human history. These are 10 titanium tubes with soil and dust samples that the rover collected during its two years of work on Mars. In December, he began to bring all the tubes to the designated area, and now NASA reported about the completion of the operation.
In addition to soil samples, the rover also delivered a control tube with atmospheric sulfur gases from Mars. It will allow you to check the composition of the atmosphere.
It's important to understand that the storage space NASA is talking about is not a building or even a box. In fact, this is just a section of the planet on which the rover placed the tubes and marked their location for further selection. But he did not dump them in a heap: on the contrary, it was necessary to maintain a distance of several meters between them.
Since all the samples lie on a relatively flat and flat area of the surface, it will be easier to pick them up later using another rover or helicopter.
This vault is a backup plan. Perseverance itself stores duplicates of all ten pipes, the material for which was collected in the same places. As part of the mission to return materials to Earth in the early 2030s, scientists will try to use the robot to obtain samples from the rover. Samples will only be taken from storage if there is a problem with the original plan.
The mission of Perseverance does not end there. He will remain in the Jezero crater, but will already study its heights. Scientists have noticed stones there, which, apparently, rolled into the crater many years ago. Studying them will allow you to learn more about the area where they were originally located, and which is now beyond the reach of the rover.
Read also🧐
- NASA reveals details of its most ambitious mission to Mars
- Scientists come up with a catapult that will allow you to get to Mars in just 45 days
- Mars is alive: a stream of molten magma was found on the Red Planet