NASA’s rover finally collects 1st rock sample of Mars

After getting failed in its first attempt, now NASA's Mars rover has got succeed in the second attempt as it has successfully scooped up a bit of rock and soil of the red planet for return to Earth.

 

The Perseverance rover's chief engineer, Adam Stelzner, called it a perfect core sample. "I've never been happier to see a hole in a rock," he tweeted Thursday.

 

However, NASA later said that it remains a little uncertain because images taken after the rover's arm completed sample acquisition were inconclusive due to poor sunlight conditions.

 

 

 

It added that was awaiting more photos before declaring success although the “team is confident that the sample is in the tube.” More images taken under better lighting are expected back by Saturday.

 

It should be noted that Collecting samples is one of the major goals of the mission. Last month, Perseverance drilled into the much softer rock, however, it gets failed to collect it inside the titanium tube.

Perseverance arrived in February at Mars' Jezero Crater, believed to be the home of a lush lakebed and river delta billions of years ago, in search of rocks that might hold evidence of ancient life.

 

NASA plans to launch more spacecraft to retrieve the samples collected by Perseverance; engineers are hoping to return as many as three dozen samples in about a decade.

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