Perseverance rover collects its first sample of Martian dirt

By Georgina Torbet Published December 10, 2022

NASA’s Perseverance rover, currently exploring Mars’s Jezero Crater, has collected its first sample of dirt from the Martian surface. The rover has been collecting rock samples up until this point, but this month it has added scooping of the soil from the planet’s surface, called regolith, to its collection. The plan is for a future mission to collect these samples and bring them back to Earth for study.

Studying this dusty matter is particularly important for designing tools and equipment for future Mars exploration. “Everything we learn about the size, shape, and chemistry of regolith grains helps us design and test better tools for future missions,” said Iona Tirona of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in a statement.

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover snagged two samples of regolith. — NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover snagged two samples of regolith – broken rock and dust – on December 2 and 6, 2022. This set of images, taken by the rover’s left navigation camera, shows Perseverance’s robotic arm over the two holes left after the samples were collected. NASA/JPL-Caltech

One of the difficulties in designing tools for Mars is the high level of dust on the planet. Mars experiences large dust storms, and this dust can get inside equipment that wears components down and gums parts up. To understand how to filter out the dust, designers need to know more about the composition of this dust, which they can learn about by studying the regolith.

Recommended Videos

“If we have a more permanent presence on Mars, we need to know how the dust and regolith will interact with our spacecraft and habitats,” explained Perseverance team member Erin Gibbons. The dust can be dangerous for humans as well. “Some of those dust grains could be as fine as cigarette smoke, and could get into an astronaut’s breathing apparatus. We want a fuller picture of which materials would be harmful to our explorers, whether they’re human or robotic.”

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Another reason to study regolith is for scientific interest, as it seems to be made up of a wide variety of different particles. Analyzing the different types and quantities of these particles can help tell the history of Mars and how rocks have been broken down over time. “There are so many different materials mixed into Martian regolith,” said Libby Hausrath, one of Perseverance’s sample return scientists. “Each sample represents an integrated history of the planet’s surface.”

Topics

Tech News

Georgina Torbet

Space Writer

Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…

Space

Perseverance rover finds tantalizing hints of possible ancient life on Mars

mars 2020 perseverance rover

NASA's Perseverance rover was sent to Mars with one big, ambitious aim: to see if life could ever have thrived on our neighboring planet. Although there's unlikely to be anything alive on Mars now, the planet was once similar to Earth, with a thicker atmosphere and plentiful water on its surface. And during this time, billions of years ago, microbial life could have survived there. Now, Perseverance has located some tantalizing indications of possible microbial life -- although it's too early for scientists to be sure.

The rover has been taking samples by drilling into the martian rock as it travels, and it's a recent sample from an area called the Cheyava Falls that has ignited interest. The rock, collected on July 21, has indications of chemical signatures and physical structures that could potentially have been formed by life, such as the presence of organic compounds. These carbon-based molecules are the building blocks of life; however, they can also be formed by other processes.

Space

How NASA is using AI on the Perseverance rover to study Mars rocks

akdjf alkjdhf lk

Space engineers have been using AI in rovers for some time now -- hence why today's Mars explorers are able to pick a safe landing site and to drive around a region autonomously. But something they haven't been able to do before now is to do science themselves, as most of that work is done by scientists on Earth who analyze data and point the rover toward targets they want to investigate.

Now, though, NASA's Perseverance rover is taking the first steps toward autonomous science investigation on Mars. The rover has been testing out an AI capability for the last three years, which allows it to search for and identify particular minerals in Mars rocks. The system works using the rover's PIXL instrument (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry), a spectrometer that uses light to analyze what rocks are made of. The software, called adaptive sampling, looks though PIXL's data and identifies minerals to be studied in more detail.

Space

NASA axes its moon rover project VIPER

NASA’s VIPER – short for the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover – sits assembled inside the cleanroom at the agency’s Johnson Space Center.

NASA’s VIPER -- short for the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover -- sits assembled inside the cleanroom at the agency’s Johnson Space Center. NASA

NASA has announced it is scrapping its plans to send a rover to the moon. The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, project was intended to search the moon's polar regions for water, but will now be shelved due to budget issues. Originally slated to land on the moon in December 2022, the project had been delayed several times, and the most recent update was that it would not be ready until September 2025.