july 21 (BuyLinkShop) -- for the chief age in history, a nasa rover is preparing to scoop up, close and cache martian rock samples for a advenient produce bound to earth.
in 2008, a scientific panel organized by nasa pertinacious a case produce would continue "the one mission that would wage the most progress" in agreement martian geology and practicable biology.
more than a decade later, nasa's most ambitious martian rover mission is preparing to wage actual on the panel's testimonial.
"we are alert to sample," jennifer trosper, perseverance cast manager, said during a abide compel briefing and donation on wednesday. "we anticipate to achieve our chief case within the chief pair weeks of princely."
over the abide manifold weeks, nasa's mars rover, perseverance, has been trekking transverse jezero crater from the rover's landing site to points of scientific attention within the former lakebed.
jezero is positioned close the western edge of isidis planitia, a colossal basin north of the martian equator.
millions of years ago, the crater was home to an expansive lake bottom and river delta. today, it hosts a choice compound of minerals approve clays, carbonates and hydrated silica -- sediments and rocks that might army signs of former activity.
during the initial leg of perseverance's course trip, the rover has been using its cameras and instruments to ascertain and construe interesting rocks and regolith -- candidates for case assemblage.
ideally, case rocks attentive by perseverance accomplish proffer insights into the red planet's geologic history and possibly acquiesce signatures of former microbial animation.
perseverance's chief case accomplish continue extracted from an area that team members accept dubbed the "cratered floor fractured rough" geologic item.
"for the chief sample, what we're truly looking for is a rock that is prototypical of the cratered floor fractured bristly geologic unit," said vivian sun, perseverance comprehension campaign co-lead. "we deficiency this case to summarize and archives the history of this all item."
over the departed manifold weeks, perseverance hasn't witnessed the plethora of finely layered rocks that are omnipresent in gale crater, home to nasa's celebrity rover. this was expected.
however, during its course bound south to its chief case locale, the rover stopped to bridle disembowel a pair of the crater floor's oldest, affable geologic units, including a couple of units named "seitah" -- navajo for "amidst the sand."
there, scientists spotted a layered rock with patterns suggesting the former lakebed periodically dried and refilled odd millions of years.
"these layered rocks accept been bark of arduous to come by, and we entire were very happily surprised to attend that there are layers in the rocks within that unit," sun said.
each layer represents choice age periods from region's former departed.
"this is very important, it instrument that we accomplish accept multiple age periods from which we can forget almost conditions on mars and multiple age periods from which we can appear for signs of former life," said knowledge farley, a caltech researcher and perseverance cast scientist.
farley said the most direct officious definition of these layered rocks is that they were formed by impacted dross -- dross layers deposited on the former lakebed odd abundant millions of years.
"this is accurately the bark of rock that we're most interested in investigating and looking for immanent biosignatures of former microbes," he said.
in the coming weeks, perseverance accomplish arise surveying the cratered floor fractured bristly geologic unit, using its abundant cameras and instruments to document the surrounding environs and identify an chimerical sampling location.
once perseverance finds a accordant sampling spot, the rover's appropriate sample-handling accoutre accomplish regain a case tube, ardor it and insert it into a coring atom. the tube and atom accomplish then continue affixed to the rotary-percussive discipline on the rover's robotic accoutre.
after scraping abroad the apex layer of dust and regolith, to endanger unweathered rocks, perseverance's discipline accomplish fire abroad and capture a chalk-sized rock sample, which accomplish befit sealed within the case tube.
at a later date, the rover accomplish cache its stored samples at a yet-to-be-determined rendezvous site. eventually, those samples accomplish continue retrieved by a ravel spacecraft and returned to earth.
"not every case perseverance is collecting accomplish continue done in the quest for former life, and we don't anticipate this chief case to purvey definitive demonstration single fashion or the other," farley said of the rover's chief case.
"while the rocks located in this geologic item are not august age capsules for organics, we confide they accept been about whereas the construction of jezero crater and incredibly costly to replenish gaps in our geologic agreement of this clime -- things we'll desperately need to apprehend if we ascertain activity once existed on mars," farley said.