NASA's Perseverance Rover Mars Sample Return: Exciting New Region | JPL
The Mars Report: NASA is preparing to bring scientifically selected rock samples back from Mars for the first time as part of the planned Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign with the European Space Agency. Already having gathered 20 samples from the Red Planet, NASA’s Perseverance rover is now poised to enter a new area of Mars’ Jezero Crater and begin collecting samples with the strongest signal of a mineral called carbonate, which on Earth is deposited by liquid water. In bringing these samples to state-of-the-art Earth-based laboratories, the campaign will help scientists understand how rocky planets form and how potentially habitable environments evolve.
This edition of the Mars Report, set in the Mars Yard at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, features Mars Sample Return Principal Scientist Mini Wadhwa. She explains the testing and preparations for the Mars Sample Return campaign, as well as the excitement that’s building for bringing those Mars samples to labs on Earth for the first time.
For more information on NASA's Mars Sample Return Campaign, visit https://mars.nasa.gov/msr
A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover characterizes the planet's geology and past climate, paves the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and is the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/JHU-APL; Personal Images: Courtesy of M. Wadwha
Duration: 3 minutes, 28 seconds
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