NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Perseverance has collected new Mars rock samples. These rock samples will be used for analysis of life and climate on Mars.
On the 1st (local time), NASA said that the Mars Exploration Rover Perseverance, which was put into the Jejero Crater exploration mission, took the first rock sample from the mission. A key goal of Perseverance’s mission to Mars is to collect samples to discover traces of ancient microbial life.
Perseverance explored the upper delta of Jezero Crater, collecting a total of 19 specimens and 3 evidence tubes. And as part of the Mars sample return mission, a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), 10 tubes were stored on the surface of Mars for backup storage. The samples were taken from a rock the researchers call ‘berea’ and contain fragments of rock and dust that help study the Martian soil and atmosphere.
Berea is believed to have been formed by sediment carried downstream by ancient Martian rivers. It is therefore possible that the Berea sample also contains material from the upper river region, far from the Jero Crater.
According to Katie Stack Morgan, associate scientist for the Perseverance Mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Berea’s rocks are rich in carbonates that can preserve fossilized life, so there may be traces of life.
And because carbonates form from chemical interactions in liquid water, scientists expect the Berea sample to unlock the secrets of primitive Martian climate. The climate of primitive Mars, where lakes and rivers exist and water is expected to be abundant, has not yet been identified.
Caltech’s Ken Farley, Perseverance Project scientist, said: “Perseverance’s maneuverability allowed us to collect igneous rock samples from the crater floor in a relatively flat formulation, then move to the delta floor and take detailed sedimentary rock samples from the dry river bed. Now they are discovering and collecting samples of coarse-grained sedimentary rocks deposited in rivers. “Samples collected from these diverse environments will help us better understand what happened here billions of years ago.”
When NASA and ESA’s next mission brings Mars samples to Earth, scientists will analyze them on Earth’s high-powered lab equipment to find signs of ancient microbial life and study the water cycles that shaped Mars’ surface and interior.