This NASA video montage shows high-resolution imagery from Perseverance’s CacheCam of rock cores inside the rover’s sample tubes. The rock cores were drilled by the rover between February 202 and December 2024,.
NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance has a rock collection that would make any geologist jealous, and the space agency is giving a sneak peek at the rocks before the samples head to Earth.
Perseverance arrived at the Red Planet in February 2021 and has been gathering important measurements and observations from the ancient lake bed, the Jezero Crater. One of its missions is to take rock core samples that will eventually be collected via the Mars Sample Return mission.
The NASA video above shows a montage of high-resolution images from the rover’s CacheCam, which took snapshots of the rover’s sample tubes. NASA said each sample was photographed before the tube was sealed. The rocks were collected between 2021 and December 2024 as the rover made its way up the rim of Jezero Crater.
Perseverance has filled 25 of its 38 sample tubes. If you want to get really nerdy, you can even see where the rover collected the rock cores.
NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its Right Mastcam-Z camera. Mastcam-Z is a pair of cameras located high on the rover’s mast. This image was acquired on Dec. 21, 2021 (Sol 298) at the local mean solar time of 12:56:51.
(NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)
Planetary scientists hope to study these rock samples in laboratories on Earth to understand Mars’s geological history and past climate and to search for potential signs of ancient life.
In the coming years, multiple robotic missions will launch as part of a collaborative Mars Sample Return mission between NASA and the European Space Agency to return these rock cores to Earth by 2030.
This year, NASA leadership called on the space industry for ideas to help reduce costs and bring the samples to Earth by 2030 after a review found that due to budget constraints, the sample return could not be completed until the 2040s.
NASA established a new review team to find adjustments to the current plan and achieve the sample return within the next decade. A new plan is forthcoming by the end of the year.