After nearly two years of beginning its long and arduous journey across the craggy Martian terrain, the Perseverance rover is now all set to accomplish its next mission — building a depot on Mars!
Perseverance, or Percy, was sent to the Red Planet to gather samples of Martian rock, mud and air and bring them to Earth. However, this is precious cargo, and Percy needed a plan to ensure these samples reached Earth safe and sound.
The first step in the Mars Sample Return campaign, which is being led by NASA and the European Space Agency, is building a sample depot. Ten tubes, each containing some diverse form of rock record from the Jezero Crater, will be ‘dropped’ at this depot. These samples will then be collected and brought back to Earth during a future Mars mission.
The process will begin with Percy dropping one of its sample-laden titanium tubes at the Three Forks — a flat area at the Jezero Crater. This will be followed by a month-long process, during which the rover will drop the rest of the tubes.
Finding level, rock-free stretches of terrain with enough room for each tube to be deposited was the first crucial step for building a depot on another planet. While this was challenging in itself, the next goal was to identify where and how to place the tubes precisely.
The tubes can hardly be dumped in a heap. Instead, the Perseverance will place them in an intricate zigzag pattern, with each sample 16 to 49 feet apart. This is very strategic because the recovery helicopters are designed to interact with only one tube at a time.
NASA has shared a map which indicates where Perseverance will drop the ten samples for future missions to collect. The orange circles indicate regions where a Sample Recovery Helicopter might safely fly to collect the sample tubes.
Meanwhile, before and after dropping each tube, mission controllers will review many images from the Perseverance rover. These pictures will provide the Mars Sample Return team with the necessary data to locate the tubes in the event the samples get covered with dust or sand prior to collection.
The samples collected by the rover are thought to present the best opportunity to reveal the early evolution of Mars, including the potential for life, and will be studied using the most sophisticated instruments here on Earth.
After nearly two years of beginning its long and arduous journey across the craggy Martian terrain, the Perseverance rover is now all set to accomplish its next mission — building a depot on Mars!
Perseverance, or Percy, was sent to the Red Planet to gather samples of Martian rock, mud and air and bring them to Earth. However, this is precious cargo, and Percy needed a plan to ensure these samples reached Earth safe and sound.
The first step in the Mars Sample Return campaign, which is being led by NASA and the European Space Agency, is building a sample depot. Ten tubes, each containing some diverse form of rock record from the Jezero Crater, will be ‘dropped’ at this depot. These samples will then be collected and brought back to Earth during a future Mars mission.
The process will begin with Percy dropping one of its sample-laden titanium tubes at the Three Forks — a flat area at the Jezero Crater. This will be followed by a month-long process, during which the rover will drop the rest of the tubes.
Finding level, rock-free stretches of terrain with enough room for each tube to be deposited was the first crucial step for building a depot on another planet. While this was challenging in itself, the next goal was to identify where and how to place the tubes precisely.
The tubes can hardly be dumped in a heap. Instead, the Perseverance will place them in an intricate zigzag pattern, with each sample 16 to 49 feet apart. This is very strategic because the recovery helicopters are designed to interact with only one tube at a time.
NASA has shared a map which indicates where Perseverance will drop the ten samples for future missions to collect. The orange circles indicate regions where a Sample Recovery Helicopter might safely fly to collect the sample tubes.
Meanwhile, before and after dropping each tube, mission controllers will review many images from the Perseverance rover. These pictures will provide the Mars Sample Return team with the necessary data to locate the tubes in the event the samples get covered with dust or sand prior to collection.
The samples collected by the rover are thought to present the best opportunity to reveal the early evolution of Mars, including the potential for life, and will be studied using the most sophisticated instruments here on Earth.
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