NASA ’s pertinacity has swing the first of the canisters containing the backup samples collected by the bird of passage during the first part of its mission . The canisters will be deliver to Earth in 2033 by theMars Sample Returnmission . These sample will be canvas in ways that our excellent robotic Explorer simply ca n’t do .
Perseverance will cede some of the tin now to the lander , but as an insurance policy , there are duplication that arebeing droppedon Mars in very specific locations . They will be pile up bytwo brand name - fresh Martian helicopterssimilar in design and scope toIngenuity , which was first test during this delegation – it exceeded first moment by so much that it became a fully - fledge vaporize comrade for Perseverance .
The fly vehicles can only pick up one sample at a time , so the samples have to be spaced out on a reasonably flat landing place land site with no rocks . The roamer will stay on devolve several more of the 17 sample distribution currently collect over the next few weeks . The first sampling was no bigger than a blackboard chalk , and was carry from an igneous rock-and-roll informally named “ Malay ” on January 31 , 2022 , in a area of Mars ’ Jezero Crater hollo “ South Séítah . ”
The sampling plainly drop out of the belly of Perseverance , and then the robotic branch is used to delay that the container does n’t roll into the way of the wheels or land pointing upward , instead of being flat on the ground . The first drop go absolutely without the demand for further treatment .
“ Seeing our first sample distribution on the priming is a great capstone to our quality missionary work period , which ends on Jan. 6 , ” Rick Welch , Perseverance ’s deputy project handler at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory , said in astatement . “ It ’s a decent alignment that , just as we ’re get going our cache , we ’re also closing this first chapter of the mission . ”
Perseverance ’s basal missionary post ends on January 6 , after a full Martian twelvemonth ( 687 day ) on the Red Planet .
