Lyra Martin Science 08.02.2022 23:Aug PM EDT

NASA's Perseverance Rover Successfully Collects 11 Martian Sample

The rover Perseverance found another rock on the Martian surface. The mission tweeted about its find and linked it to a future mission to bring back samples.

Perseverance Identified Another Rock

Another rock that might provide information on whether there once was life on Mars has been retrieved by NASA's Perseverance rover.

On Monday, August 1, the Mars mission made a brief Twitter announcement about the achievement, tying the rover's collection to its potential involvement in a future sample-return mission.

Perseverance will now serve as the primary sample collecting rover for NASA's Mars sample return mission, replacing earlier plans to employ a fetch rover from the European Space Agency, the agency revealed last week. NASA will assign two new helicopters to gather the samples on their own as a backup.

NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are working to develop the sample return mission, which will fly to Mars in 2028. Meanwhile, Perseverance will prepare the samples gathered in Jezero Crater and choose a suitable landing site for the sample return mission.

Perseverance will transport samples to a tiny Mars Ascent Vehicle rocket once the sample return mission lands (MAV). The rocket will send the samples to an orbiter, transmitting the pebbles to Earth for scientific study.

Perseverance contains 43 test tubes, 38 of which need to be sample-filled. The rover crew carefully chooses the most promising cases from the collection zone to avoid squandering essential cargo capacity.

In February 2021, the expedition touched down on Mars, and its first tube was filled in September 2021. It is currently investigating a river delta that, according to previous briefings with Perseverance authorities, could yet contain signs of former habitation.

Blue Sand Ripples Covering Martian Surface is Giving it a Strange Look

The Martian terrain is covered with what seems to be ripples of blue sand, which gives the Red Planet an even more bizarre appearance.

However, the eye-catching coloring is deceptive. You need to go a bit deeper than its makeup to find genuine beauty.

The landscape, which was captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) earlier this year, was processed using a technique known as "fake color," which turns subtle differences in light wavelengths into stunning color palettes that are impossible to miss.

This upgrade is impressive but wasn't made to glam up Mars. By analyzing the data, planetary scientists can investigate geological and atmospheric processes below MRO's orbital height. This demonstrates a variation in areas and features on Mars' surface.

The Gamboa Crater in the northern hemisphere of Mars is the area that MRO has observed. Many bigger hills have just a few feet separating the tiniest ripples from one another on their tops. They eventually combine to produce a series of little mounds that radiate out from the surge of dunes at intervals of about 10 meters.

These medium-sized structures are brilliantly colored in blue, making it simpler to see their unique patterns among a sea of ripples and huge, sandy waves.

These medium-sized formations, also known as Transverse Aeolian Ridges (TARs), are constructed of highly coarse-particle sand. NASA claims that the increased hues of the TARs and giant dunes indicate continuing erosive processes.

According to a statement on the NASA website, "The mega-ripples look blue-green on one side of an enhanced color cutout while the TAR seem brighter blue on the other.