Photo: The persevering rover managed to extract its first rock sample on the surface of Mars

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September 6, 2021, 21:09 GMT

It is one of more than two dozen rock samples the rover plans to collect that will then be brought to Earth during a joint US-European mission in the 1930s.

NASA confirmed On Sunday, the rover managed to extract the first rock sample on the surface of Mars.

“Understood!”The US space agency wrote on the Twitter account of the Mars explorer.

A few days ago, NASA said it believed the rover had managed to extract the sample, but due to poor lighting in the images taken by Perseverance, scientists were unable to confirm this definitively. “With better lighting in the sample tube, you can see that the rock core you collected is still there. Next, I will process this sample and seal the tube‘,” the agency now explained from the rover account.

was the goal A bag-sized rock called “Rochet”, located in A ridge with a length of 900 meters, Pick up France Press agency. Similar attempt to collect a sample in August failBecause the rock was too brittle to withstand digging.

Perseverance landed on Mars in February 2021 on a mission to collect rocks and regolith on the Red Planet. One goal lies in astrobiology, including searching for signs of ancient microbial life, which will help characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, as well as begin human exploration.

The probe is tasked with collecting more than two dozen rock samples from Mars, which will be brought to Earth during a joint NASA-European Space Agency mission in the 2030s.

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