NASA ingenuity keeps flying forward march, NASA endurance started the new exploration cycle after the one ended earlier in the year. There rover seems healthy and has traveled before 17.17km on Martian soil in approx 754 floors. A good result considering how difficult it is to move a vehicle with a mass of about one ton on a planet a million kilometers away.
Of course, to the work of engineers is added that of scientists trying to identify rocks or areas of soil useful to better understand the evolution of Mars over millions of years and how it evolved from a habitable planet to a decidedly different planet. To do this (and to understand if microbial life might have evolved), the team at Mars Sample Return Mission which will return to Earth in 2033 test samples containing rock, sand and atmosphere to be studied with the best technologies (all of which cannot be integrated into a rover, however complex it may be). In the last few days the rover collected his first world champion of the new campaign, here’s what we know.
NASA Perseverance has collected a new rock sample
THE new world champion was collected on March 30, 2023 on said rock prepare. As far as we know, it is one sedimentary rock which could provide more data on the delta area of the river that once filled the Jezero crater with water. It is precisely in this type of rock that traces of fossil microbial life have been found that would have once inhabited the Jezero crater. march (and that would be sensational news).
According to reports NASA endurance has currently collected a total of 19 samples and three test tubes to check for possible contamination. Ten test tubes have been dropped on the floor as shown over the past few weeks. The other nine (including the last one taken) are kept in the warehouse. rover which could take them directly to the lander and send them into orbit on a solid fuel rocket, as is currently planned for the mission. Return of the Mars sample. A total of 38 samples can be taken, 5 of which are test tubes to detect possible contamination. So with the 19 currently sealed we are at half the total (5% atmosphere, 84% rock and 11% regolith).
According to scientists prepare would have formed from rock deposits carried downstream by an ancient river. This means that its components could come from even more distant regions and thus provide information about them. Katie StackMorgan (JPL scientist) said: “The second reason is that the rocks are rich in carbonate. On Earth, carbonate rocks can be useful for sustaining fossilized life forms. If there were biological signatures in that part of Jezero Crater, it could be a rock like this that could very well hold their secrets.”
Another factor to consider is that carbonates form in the presence of liquid water, which could also help to better understand the climate at the time of their formation. Ken Farley (from Caltech) remembered how NASA endurance Igneous rocks collected at the bottom of the crater while approaching the delta, fine-grained sedimentary rocks were found. Here, on the other hand, the sedimentary rocks are coarse-grained. This allows for a “span” between the rock types present. One of the rover’s next stops will be a dry river bed in the area called Castell Henllys.