![]() “The samples for this depot – and the duplicates held aboard Perseverance – are an incredible set representative of the area explored during the prime mission,” said Meenakshi Wadhwa, the Mars Sample Return program principal scientist from Arizona State University. Half of every pair will be deposited at Three Forks as a backup set, and the other half will remain inside Perseverance, which will be the primary means to convey the collected samples to the Mars launch vehicle as part of the campaign. The rover has been taking a pair of samples from each of its rock targets. The rover’s planned route is in black while the ground it already covered is in white. ![]() It's possible the deposited samples could be collected by future missions.Map of Perseverance's Delta Top Campaign: This map shows the planned route NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover will take across the top of Jezero Crater’s delta in 2023. It will leave a deposit sample cache in the river delta as an "insurance policy" collection option before moving on to more ancient terrain on Mars, according to NASA's Mars Sample Return Program Manager Richard Cook. Perseverance has been collecting duplicate samples in Jezero Crater. THE BUSINESS OF SPACE DIRT: ARTIFICIAL LUNAR, MARTIAN AND ASTEROID SOIL IS IN DEMAND While Percy landed over a year ago on Mars, its predecessor NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover, has continued to operate on the Red Planet for 10 years, giving engineers the confidence that Percy will have the longevity needed to complete its job. "That is because of things we learned on Mars." "At this moment in time, based on the knowledge we have (from) an in-depth analysis from Curiosity and also what we've learned from Perseverance, we are a lot more comfortable to make Perseverance the primary place, the primary option, of getting the samples there," Zurbuchen said. The lander will have a Mars Ascent Vehicle that will launch the samples from Mars into orbit, where ESA's Earth Return Orbiter will be waiting to catch the samples and transport them back to Earth. To take advantage of the flight success on Mars, NASA leaders said a new lander launching in 2028 will now have two sample recovery helicopters based on the Ingenuity design. ![]() NASA'S MARS HELICOPTER CONTINUES TO DEFY EXPECTATIONS The Ingenuity helicopter exceeded expectations beyond its 30-day demonstration mission and is now in a new operational phase, surveying Mars from above. Ingenuity, the 4-pound helicopter that hitched a ride with Percy to Mars, was initially a technology demonstration mission to learn if controlled flights on Mars would even be possible. Perseverance has been exploring the Jezero Crater, Mars's ancient river delta, since it landed in February 2021, searching for signs of life, taking rock core samples and scouting potential sample return landing sites. Mars helicopter captures images of debris from Perseverance rover's landing gear. Mars helicopter captures images of debris from Perseverance rover's landing gear ![]()
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