Historic! NASA's Perseverance Rover completes sample depot on Mars
Perseverance Rover has successfully finished constructing the sample depot on Mars. The rover dropped the last of the 10 sample tubes on January 29 to achieve the historic feat. The depot is being created as a backup for the Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign which aims to bring Martian samples to Earth in the future for in-depth study.
Why does this story matter?
This is the first time that a sample repository has been constructed in another world. After about six weeks, the car-sized rover has now completed building the repository at the "Three Forks" region at the Jezero Crater on Mars. The rover has been collecting samples in duplicates. One set is stored within the rover while the other has been used to construct the depot.
The depot serves as a backup for the MSR campaign
The sample tubes were dropped in an intricate zigzag pattern
The sealed titanium sample tubes were deposited in an intricate zigzag pattern on the Martian surface, with a distance of about 15 to 50 feet between each tube to ensure they could be safely recovered. The team had to precisely map the location of each 7-inch-long sample tube and glove (adapter) combination so that the tubes could be spotted even if covered with dust.
The depot lies close to an ancient river delta
"The depot is on flat ground near the base of the raised, fan-shaped ancient river delta that formed long ago when a river flowed into a lake there," said NASA in a blog post.
How will the samples be brought back to Earth?
If everything goes well, the samples from Mars could be brought back as early as 2033. The rover will deliver samples to a rocket-equipped NASA lander on Mars. The rocket will then send the samples to Mars orbit, where they will be returned to Earth by an ESA probe. The ESA orbiter and NASA lander are scheduled to launch in 2027 and 2028, respectively.
The backup plan involves two Ingenuity-based helicopters
The sample depot serves as a backup in case the rover is not able to deliver the samples. In such a case, two small helicopters will collect the sample tubes from the depot and bring them back to the lander one by one. These helicopters will launch aboard the lander in 2028 and will be based on the Ingenuity Mars helicopter.
Where is the Rover headed now?
Now that the sample depot has been constructed, the Rover will make its way up the ancient delta, examining the intriguing rocks on its path. After the rover crosses an outcrop, called the Rocky Top, it will begin the next phase of its science mission called the Delta Top campaign, which is expected to last about eight months.
"Rocks appear to have been deposited in a lake environment"
"We found that from the base of the delta up to the level where Rocky Top is located, the rocks appear to have been deposited in a lake environment," said Ken Farley, Perseverance's project scientist. "And those just above Rocky Top appear to have been created in or at the end of a Martian river flowing into the lake."
The team expects to find "large boulders" as well
"As we ascend the delta into a river setting, we expect to move into rocks that are composed of larger grains - from sand to large boulders," added Farley. "Those materials likely originated in rocks outside of Jezero, eroded, and then washed into the crater."
