“Seeing our first sample on the ground is a great capstone to our prime mission period, which ends on Jan. 6.”
NASA’S Perseverance Mars rover has dropped its first rock sample on the Red Planet’s surface. A titanium tube containing a rock sample on December 21 that was deposited on the surface of Mars is likely to be the first sample that could return to Earth. The event marks a “historic” step in the Mars Sample Return campaign.
The first sample comprised a chalk-size core of igneous rock called “Malay”. This sample was collected on January 31, 2022, from a region in the Jezero Crater called “South Seitah”.
Currently, Perseverance has 17 other samples in its belly.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
A titanium tube containing a rock sample on December 21 that was deposited on the surface of Mars is likely to be the first sample that could return to Earth. The event marks a “historic” step in the Mars Sample Return campaign.
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