NASA confirms the collection of planetary soil by the Perseverance rover

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has confirmed the collection of a soil sample from Mars, reported on the Mars rover Perseverance Twitter page.

“I did it, thanks to the better lighting you can see the soil sample I collected. I will process the sample and seal the tube, ”the publication says.

NASA previously reported on the successful taking of a rock sample from the surface of Mars on September 1, but noted that due to insufficient lighting, images confirming the success of the mission turned out to be fuzzy. To be completely confident in the success of the mission, new images with better quality light were required.

Perseverance is equipped with a soil sample collection and storage system that uses rotary percussion drilling technology. Using a drill attached to a 2 meter robotic arm, Perseverance drills a selected sample and extracts material from it, which is then dropped into a reservoir and stored inside the rover.

On August 5, the rover tried to get a sample of planetary soil, but the attempt ended in failure. According to NASA experts, the stone chosen for drilling crumbled under the influence of a drill, transfers Interfax.

In the future, samples collected during the rover mission to Mars will be delivered to Earth as part of joint missions between NASA and the European Space Agency.

The Perseverance rover with the Ingenuity helicopter successfully landed on the surface of the Red Planet on February 18 this year. The American automatic interplanetary station to Mars was launched on July 30 last year.

The main task of the rover is to search for signs of life on the Red Planet. Rover is researching the geology and climate of Mars to determine if human colonization of the planet is possible in the future.

Perseverance is the fifth American rover that NASA has sent to study the Red Planet.