GETTING TO THE CORE of an Ancient Martian Lake

Does Mars have a biosphere with living critters, if only at a microbial level? If not now, did it once? Scientists hope to explore those questions and more with intact finger-size core samples to be dug by NASA’s Perseverance rover. The samples will be examined for fossilized biomarkers and biosignatures that might indicate extraterrestrial life, both past and present. Unfortunately, the first attempt at drilling for such a core sample failed on August 6, 2021. As it drills, Perseverance inserts a titanium tube to collect a core. Scientists hope to collect many samples since they stocked Perseverance with 43 tubes. But that first tube came up empty! Per NASA’s Thomas Zurbuchen, “this is not the hole-in-one we hoped for.” NASA scientists determined this initial exercise drilled into rock that was too crumbly and the hoped-for sample was pulverized to dust by the drill bit. “It took a few minutes for this reality to sink in,” said the project’s chief engineer, Louise Jandura. A second attempt, in a new spot a few hundred meters away, on September 1 resulted in “a momentous achievement.” Perseverance drilled in, sucked up and deposited in its body a core sample within a hermetically sealed container. A robotic arm is stuffing the samples inside Perseverance for storage until a later Mars SampleReturn mission (MSR) — a mission being jointly undertaken by NASA and the European Space Agency — that might bring those canisters to Earth somewhere around 2031.