NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover to start building first sample depot on another world

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover will soon start building the first sample depot on another world, which will mark a crucial milestone in the Mars Sample Return campaign, a strategic partnership between the agency and ESA aimed at bringing scientifically selected Martian samples to Earth for study using the most sophisticated instruments around the world.

The depot-building process will start with the rover dropping one of its titanium sample tubes at an area of Jezero Crater called Three Forks. Over the course of a month, the rover is expected to deposit a total of 10 tubes that carry samples representing the diversity of the rock record in Jezero Crater.

Before and after dropping each tube, mission controllers will review a multitude of images from the Perseverance rover, which will give the Mars Sample Return team the precise data necessary to locate the tubes in the event of the samples becoming covered by dust or sand before they are collected.

The sample tubes will be deposited on the surface in an intricate zigzag pattern, with each sample 16 to 49 feet (5 to 15 meters) apart from one another because the recovery helicopters are designed to interact with only one tube at a time, according to Richard Cook, Mars Sample Return program manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

The samples (containing rock, regolith, atmosphere, and witness materials) collected by Perseverance are thought to present the best opportunity to reveal the early evolution of Mars, including the potential for life. 

Up ahead: “Three Forks.” The spot where I’ll drop a set of samples that the #MarsSampleReturn missions could bring back to Earth for closer study. This first set is full of diverse rocks that could help answer if life ever arose here.Learn more: https://t.co/XCamIjl7nt pic.twitter.com/IkMli9MJ6C

— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) December 16, 2022