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The Perseverance Explorer will build the first repository of rock and soil samples on another planet. The creation of the bunker site is an important milestone in the complex’s preparations to return the first rock and soil from Mars to Earth in 2033.
In a few days, the rover will start dropping some of its sample tubes, which contain a gypsum core and rock-sized sediment collected from the surface of Mars, into a deposit in an area called Three Forks in Jezero Crater.
The ten tubes will drop approximately 2.9 feet (88.4 cm) from the belly of the rover and land in various areas of the flat, rock-free plains of Three Forks over the next 30 days.
Rover has collected several samples of the excavated rock and is keeping a spare set as a precaution.
That Mars Sample Return Programjointly run by NASA and the European Space Agency, it will be an attempt to land on Mars, take samples and return them to Earth within the next decade.
“The samples from this repository — and the duplicates aboard Perseverance — are an impressive collection that represent the area explored during the main mission,” Meenakshi Wadhwa, principal scientist for the Mars Sample Return Program, said in a statement.
“Not only do we have igneous and sedimentary rocks that record at least two and possibly four or even more distinct patterns of water change, but also People who canand air and Watch the tubewadu said Also director of the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, he points to examples of igneous and sedimentary rocks, rocks altered by water, surface dust and even the Martian atmosphere.
Perseverance is a rock and dirt collector as he searches for the site of an ancient lake that existed billions of years ago. This material could contain evidence of the first microscopic organisms that would reveal whether life once existed on Mars. Scientists will use some of the most advanced tools to study these precious specimens.
At first, The plan is to launch a pickup truckalong with a sampling lander, in mid-2020. After launching to Mars, the rover will retrieve samples from where Perseverance has them stored.
Now, persistence will be the primary mode of transport for transferring samples to probes. The rover’s latest evaluation shows it is still in perfect condition for sample delivery In 2030. Perseverance will return to the lander and the lander’s robotic arm will transfer the samples.
The Sample Recovery Helicopter will carry two sample recovery helicopters, similar to the Ingenuity helicopter currently on Mars, instead of embarking on a rover.
The engineers were impressed with the performance of the innovation. The helicopter has an estimated useful life of just over a year and will make its 37th flight. If Perseverance is unable to return the sample to the lander, a small helicopter will fly off the lander and use the boom to retrieve and return the sample.
“So far, missions to Mars have only required a good landing area. We need 11,” Richard Cook, director of the Mars Sample Return Program at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a statement.
“The first is for the sampler unit, but then we need 10 more planes nearby for our sample recovery helicopters to do takeoffs and landings and also to drive.”
The Mars sample return team is also focusing on which model Perseverance will use to release its sample.
“You can’t just drop them in big piles because choppers are designed to only interact with one container at a time,” Cook said.
The rover will drop the canisters in an intricate zigzag pattern, leaving enough space around each drop zone to ensure helicopters can retrieve them if needed.
The sampling vehicle also carries the Mars Ascent Vehicle, the first rocket launched from the surface of Mars, with samples safely stored inside. The spacecraft is expected to launch from Mars in 2031. A separate mission will launch from Earth in the mid-2020s, called the Earth Return Orbiter, to rendezvous with the Mars Ascent Vehicle.
On board, the Earth Return Orbiter is a system that collects sample canisters from the Mars Ascent Vehicle as both vehicles orbit the Red Planet.
After that, the Earth’s return probe will return to our planet. Once the spacecraft is close to Earth, it will launch a loaded vehicle sample cache and the spacecraft will land on Earth in 2033.
Perseverance’s main mission will end on January 6, nearly two years (and a Martian year) after landing on the Red Planet. But the explorer’s journey is not over.
“We will still be working on deploying samples when our extended mission begins (January 7), so nothing has changed from that perspective,” said Art Thompson, project manager at JPL Perseverance. “However, once the table is set in Three Forks, we will head towards the top of the delta. The science team wants to take a closer look.”
Perseverance will enter its new science operation, called the Top Delta Campaign, in the new year. The explorer will finish scaling the steep cliffs of an ancient river delta that once emptied into Jezero crater lake billions of years ago and will reach the delta’s upper surface in February.
Over the next eight months, Perseverance will provide additional stones and materials for the river Maybe I’m pregnant Another part of Mars is deposited in the delta.
“The Delta Top campaign is our opportunity to peer into geological processes beyond the walls of Jezero Crater,” Katie Stack Morgan, deputy project scientist for Perseverance at JPL, said in a statement.
Billions of years ago, raging rivers carried debris and rocks from miles beyond Jezero’s walls. We will explore these ancient riverine deposits and obtain samples of rock and boulders that have been cut from a long distance.”
