NASA’s Perseverance rover keeps dropping early Christmas presents on Mars.
On Friday (Dec. 23), NASA announced that Perseverance successfully dropped its second rock sample tube on the Martian surface. And while this isn’t the first Mars sample Perseverance has dropped for a possible future mission to bring to Earth in 2033, it’s certainly the largest.
“My second sample drop is looking good!” NASA’s Perseverance rover team wrote a twitter update (opens in new tab) Friday. “This tube here holds a piece of sedimentary rock from the edge of an ancient river delta – the longest rock core I’ve taken to date.”
related: 12 amazing photos from Perseverance’s first year on Mars
The longest rock core collected by Perseverance is a sample called “Magic”, drilled by the rover from “Amalik” rock, which falls from the “Enchanted Lake” area of the ancient delta in the Jezero Crater landing site.
“The tube itself is about the size of a marker, and I measured the rock core sample to be 7.36 cm (about 2.9 inches) inside,” NASA wrote in a statement. on twitter (opens in new tab), Perseverance dropped its first sample tube on Wednesday (December 21) at a nearby location.
It is intended to drop 10 tightly sealed tubes containing samples of Mars rock, which resemble miniature lightsabers from Star Wars, for possible collection by a future Mars Sample Return mission. That mission and an orbiter could launch to Mars by 2028 and return sample tubes to Earth five years later. If all goes according to plan, Perseverance or two small helicopters will deliver Mars samples to a lander that will launch them into space so a waiting orbiter can collect them for the trip back to Earth.
Perseverance is falling samples which are backup. The rover collected twin samples at each drill site, storing one inside its body while dropping the other when backup was needed. Perseverance is expected to be delivered to the waiting lander if the nuclear-powered one lives long enough to reach the Mars sample return lander at the end of the decade.
NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on Mars in February 2021. Its primary mission will last two years, but NASA hopes the rover can live longer. Its predecessor, the nuclear-powered Curiosity rover, recently celebrated its 10th anniversary on Mars in August.
Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow @tariqjmalik (opens in new tab), follow us @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab), Facebook (opens in new tab) And instagram (opens in new tab),