NASA's Perseverance Rover Completes Mars Sample DepotNASA's Perseverance Mars rover took a selfie with several of the 10 sample tubes it deposited at a sample depot it is creating within an area of Jezero Crater nicknamed "Three Forks." Perseverance's Three Forks Sample Depot Selfie: NASA's Perseverance Mars rover took a selfie with several of the 10 sample tubes it deposited at a sample depot it is creating within an area of Jezero Crater nicknamed "Three Forks." Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS. Download image ›Ten sample tubes, capturing an amazing variety of Martian geology, have been deposited on Mars’ surface so they could be studied on Earth in the future.Less than six weeks after it began, construction of the first sample depot on another world is complete. Confirmation that NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover successfully dropped the 10th and final tube planned for the depot was received around 5 p.m. PST (8 p.m. EST) Sunday, Jan. 29, by mission controllers at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. This major milestone involved precision planning and navigation to ensure the tubes could be safely recovered in the future by the NASA-ESA (European Space Agency) Mars Sample Return campaign, which aims to bring Mars samples to Earth for closer study.NASA's Perseverance Mars rover dropped the last of 10 tubes at the "Three Forks" sample depot on Jan. 28, 2023, the 690th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.WATSON Documents Final Tube Dropped at 'Three Forks' Sample Depot: NASA's Perseverance Mars rover dropped the last of 10 tubes at the "Three Forks" sample depot on Jan. 28, 2023, the 690th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS. Download image ›Throughout its science campaigns, the rover has been taking a pair of samples from rocks the mission team deems scientifically significant. One sample from each pair taken so far now sits in the carefully arranged depot in the “Three Forks” region of Jezero Crater. The depot samples will serve as a backup set while the other half remain inside Perseverance, which would be the primary means to convey samples to a Sample Retrieval Lander as part of the campaign.Mission scientists believe the igneous and sedimentary rock cores provide an excellent cross section of the geologic processes that took place in Jezero shortly after the crater’s formation almost 4 billion years ago. The rover also deposited an atmospheric sample and what’s called a “witness” tube, which is used to determine if samples being collected might be contaminated with materials that traveled with the rover from Earth.This map shows where NASA’s Perseverance Mars dropped each of its 10 samples so that a future mission could pick them up from a sample depot the rover created at a location dubbed “Three Forks” in Jezero Crater.Perseverance's 'Three Forks' Sample Depot Map: This map shows where NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover dropped each of its 10 samples – one half of every pair taken so far – so that a future mission could pick them up. After five weeks of work, the sample depot was completed Jan. 24, 2023, the 687th day, or sol, of the mission. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Download image ›The titanium tubes were deposited on the surface in an intricate zigzag pattern, with each sample about 15 to 50 feet (5 to 15 meters) apart from one another to ensure they could be safely recovered. Adding time to the depot-creation process, the team needed to precisely map the location of each 7-inch-long (18.6-centimeter-long) tube and glove (adapter) combination so that the samples could be found even if covered with dust. The depot is on flat ground near the base of the raised, fan-shaped ancient river delta that formed long ago when a river flowed into a lake there.“With the Three Forks depot in our rearview mirror, Perseverance is now headed up the delta,” said Rick Welch, Perseverance’s deputy project manager at JPL. “We’ll make our ascent via the ‘Hawksbill Gap’ route we previously explored. Once we pass the geologic unit the science team calls ‘Rocky Top,’ we will be in new territory and begin exploring the Delta Top.”Next Science CampaignPassing the Rocky Top outcrop represents the end of the rover’s Delta Front Campaign and the beginning of the rover’s Delta Top Campaign because of the geologic transition that takes place at that level.“We found that from the base of the delta up to the level where Rocky Top is located, the rocks appear to have been deposited in a lake environment,” said Ken Farley, Perseverance project scientist at Caltech. “And those just above Rocky Top appear to have been created in or at the end of a Martian river flowing into the lake. As we ascend the delta into a river setting, we expect to move into rocks that are composed of larger grains – from sand to large boulders. Those materials likely originated in rocks outside of Jezero, eroded and then washed into the crater.”One of the first stops the rover will make during the new science campaign is at a location the science team calls the “Curvilinear Unit.” Essentially a Martian sandbar, the unit is made of sediment that eons ago was deposited in a bend in one of Jezero’s inflowing river channels. The science team believes the Curvilinear Unit will be an excellent location to hunt for intriguing outcrops of sandstone and perhaps mudstone, and to get a glimpse at the geological processes beyond the walls of Jezero Crater.More About the MissionA key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including caching samples that may contain signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith.Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA, would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.For more about Perseverance:https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/News Media ContactsDC AgleJet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.818-393-9011[email protected]Karen Fox / Alana JohnsonNASA Headquarters, Washington301-286-6284 / 202-358-1501[email protected] / [email protected]
If you look at the images of the dropped tubes you can see they fall on a surface made of small rock fragments, gravel and rock chips, not fine dust or sand. This is an area where fine material is being stripped away, leaving a lag deposit of fragments too big to blow away. If dust was being deposited quickly enough to bury a (c.) 1 cm diameter tube in 10 years the whole of Jezero crater would be filled with dust already. So nothing o fear.Don't forget, though, that this cache will almost certainly not be collected by the sample return mission. It's a backup. The sample return mission is more likely to get the next set, which will be the second copies of all this stuff plus a whole lot more.
in the event that they are needed
still many questions left about msr.....1)what is this long no. "10464848-X" (X is seen 4,5,6 Or 7) on every sample tube as seen in cachecam images?
4)When can we expect the start of manufacturing of MSR elements?
5)Who is making the RCS thrusters for Mars Ascent vehicle it's Lockheed or Northrop Grumman??
9) How does anyone or the sample retrieval lander know as to the time is right for launch and vector release as earthly launches are full of aborts??
10) will nasa add a miniature robot, tethered like russian Prop-m rover on solar panels as this tech has developed now by israel to clean dusty solar panels for mission longetivity???
You will see a little more news on this soon. NASA is looking for possible de-scopes for the mission. One of them could be eliminating a helicopter.
Quote from: Blackstar on 03/14/2023 02:07 amYou will see a little more news on this soon. NASA is looking for possible de-scopes for the mission. One of them could be eliminating a helicopter. I heard they are adding a 3rd.
Quote from: Jim on 03/21/2023 12:48 pmQuote from: Blackstar on 03/14/2023 02:07 amYou will see a little more news on this soon. NASA is looking for possible de-scopes for the mission. One of them could be eliminating a helicopter. I heard they are adding a 3rd.When I first heard about this mission design last summer, the proposal was for three helicopters. When they unveiled it, they only mentioned two. I would be surprised if they actually add one now.
NASA to Convene Mars Sample Return ReviewThis illustration shows a concept for multiple robots that would team up to ferry to Earth samples of rock and soil collected from the Martian surface by NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover.Credits: NASAThe board, initiated by NASA, will provide added confidence that the program won’t exceed guidelines following an important upcoming milestone.NASA will convene a Mars Sample Return (MSR) Program independent review board, or IRB, to perform a review of current plans and goals for one of the most difficult missions humanity has ever undertaken: bringing samples from another planet to study on Earth.Later this year MSR will approach confirmation, a milestone at which NASA formally establishes the technical, cost, and schedule baselines for a mission. Convening a review board – this is the second IRB for this program – will provide added confidence that the program will not exceed guidelines following confirmation. Such reviews also ensure that NASA is adopting lessons learned from experiences with previous large, strategic science missions.MSR is a partnership with ESA (European Space Agency). It would be the first mission to return samples from another planet and would include the first launch from the surface of another planet as well as the first in-orbit rendezvous at another planet. Returning scientifically selected samples – the samples currently being gathered by NASA’s Perseverance rover – from Mars would revolutionize our understanding of the Red Planet by bringing them to Earth for study using large and sophisticated instruments. The samples collected by Perseverance during its exploration of an ancient river delta are thought to be the best opportunity to reveal the early evolution of Mars, including the potential for ancient life. Orlando Figueroa, retired deputy center director for science and technology at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, was recently named chair for this independent review board. The IRB will be tasked with providing an assessment of the current status as well as recommendations to maximize the probability of mission success – scientifically and technically – within guidelines. The board will include experts in relevant science, technical and programmatic fields and is expected to produce a final report in late August.The most recent Planetary Science Decadal Survey conducted for NASA by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine has stated that completing Mars sample return is the highest scientific priority for NASA’s robotic exploration efforts. The Decadal Survey also stated that the cost for the mission should not be allowed to undermine the long-term programmatic balance of the planetary portfolio. Returning samples from Mars to Earth has been a goal of planetary scientists for decades.Dewayne Washington / Karen Fox / Erin MortonNASA Headquarters, Washington301-832-5867 / 202-358-1275 / 202-805-9393[email protected] / [email protected] / [email protected] DC AgleJet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.818-393-9011[email protected]2023-051