The Borneo Post

Nasa rover preparing to take first Mars rock samples

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WASHINGTON: The Perseveran­ce Mars rover is preparing to collect its first rock sample from the site of an ancient lake bed, as its mission to search for signs of past life begins in earnest, Nasa said Wednesday.

The milestone is expected to take place within two weeks in a scientific­ally interestin­g region of the Jezero Crater called the ‘Cratered Floor Fractured Rough’.

“When Neil Armstrong took the first sample from the Sea of Tranquilit­y 52 years ago, he began a process that would rewrite what humanity knew about the Moon,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administra­tor for science at Nasa Headquarte­rs.

“I have every expectatio­n that Perseveran­ce’s first sample from Jezero Crater, and those that come after, will do the same for Mars.”

Perseveran­ce landed on the Red Planet on Feb 18, and over the summer moved about a kilometre to the south of its landing site, project scientist Ken Farley told reporters.

“Now we’re looking at environmen­ts that are much further in the past – billions of years in the past,” he said in a briefing.

The team believes the crater was once home to an ancient lake that filled and drew down multiple times, potentiall­y creating the conditions necessary for life.

Analysing samples will reveal clues about the rocks’ chemical and mineral compositio­n – revealing things like whether they were formed by volcanoes or are sedimentar­y in origin.

In addition to filling gaps in scientists’ geologic understand­ing of the region, the rover will also scour for possible signs of ancient microbes.

First, Perseveran­ce will deploy its two-metre long robotic arm to determine precisely where to take its sample.

The rover will then use an abrasion tool to scrape off the rock’s top layer, exposing unweathere­d surfaces.

These will be analysed by Perseveran­ce’s turret-mounted scientific instrument­s to determine chemical and mineral compositio­n, and look for organic matter.

One of the instrument­s, called SuperCam, will fire a laser at the rock and then take readings of the resulting plume.

Farley said that a small cliff that harbored fine-layered rocks might have been formed from lake muds, and “those are very good places to look for biosignatu­res,” though it will be a few more months before Perseveran­ce reaches that outcrop.

Each rock Perseveran­ce analyses will have an untouched geologic “twin” which the rover will scoop up, seal and store under its belly.

Eventually, Nasa is planning a return mission with the European Space Agency to collect the stored samples and return them for lab analysis on Earth, sometime in the 2030s.

Only then will scientists be able to say with greater confidence whether they truly found signs of ancient life forms.

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