It contains the longest samples of the species collected by the rover.
Perseverance Mars rover left scientists with a new “Christmas present”. On December 23, he dropped the second tube with samples of Martian soil, according to Space.com.
And although this is not the first dropped sample, it is the largest. It, as well as other samples, should be delivered to Earth in 2033.
“My second sample looks great! This tube contains a piece of sedimentary rock from the edge of an ancient river delta here — the longest rock core I've ever taken,” the mission's Twitter account says. work on Mars
The longest rock core collected by Perseverance is a sample called “Mageik”, which the rover drilled from the “Amalyk” rock this fall in the “Enchanted Lake” area of the ancient delta at the landing site of the Lake crater.
The tube itself in dimensions it resembles a marker, and the length of the sample inside it is 7.6 centimeters.
In total, Perseverance will drop 10 sample tubes, which will then have to be collected by the apparatus involved in the mission to return the samples. It is expected that this mission will be launched in 2028, and the samples will be delivered to Earth five years later. If everything goes according to plan, Perseverance itself or two small helicopters will deliver them to the rock collection platform, which will also be launched to the Red Planet.
It is worth noting that the samples dropped by the rover are considered spare. Perseverance collects two samples in each region, leaving one in its storage and discarding the other in case it is needed.
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Remember, earlier Perseverance was able to record the sound of dust particles that were circling around it during a storm. This audio recording may be the key to understanding how dust moves around the Red Planet.
