NASA scientists said Thursday that the Mars Perseverance rover found biologically interesting rocks in an ancient lakebed that could indicate microbial life existed on the red planet billions of years ago. After launching from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in July 2020, NASA successfully landed its second rover, Perseverance, on Mars in February 2021. Along the way was a 4-pound helicopter named Ingenuity, which was a great success, showing that controlled flights can be made on Mars. Since landing, Percy wanders the site of a dried-up ancient Martian river delta known as Jezero Crater. The robot has seven scientific instruments, including cameras and two microphones that recorded the sounds of the wind on Mars and its landing. On Thursday, mission managers provided an update on what the rover had discovered during its 8-mile exploration of Jezero Crater. The area was likely a lake more than 3.5 billion years ago, so NASA landed the rover there to search an ancient habitable environment for evidence of life. Martian rock core samples collected by NASA’s Mars rover. (Image: NASA) “This mission is not looking for extant living things that are alive today,” said Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley. “Instead, we’re looking at the very distant past, when the Martian climate was very different from what it is today, much more favorable for life.” Over 550 Sols, or Martian days, Farley said Perseverance has discovered that the story of the crater floor is more complicated than expected. Based on the findings of smart rock formed by volcanic activity, the scientific team now believes that before it held a lake bed, the crater had some active volcanic activity, even a lava lake.
Rocks that will thrill you: Wildcat Ridge and Skinner Ridge
Wildcat Ridge and Skinner Ridge in Jezero Crater on Mars. Image taken by NASA’s Perseverance rover. (Image: NASA) Scientists said many rock samples collected on Mars contain organic molecules associated with life. Two rock samples, in particular, were collected from cliffs the team named Wildcat Ridge and Skinner Ridge, which excite the scientific team. The stones were named after trails in Shenandoah National Park. The rocks, about 66 feet (20 meters) apart, yielded very different samples, but each of high scientific value, said Persistence sample return scientist David Schuster. However, both samples have something in common. “Both of these rocks are made of sediments that were transported by liquid water,” Shuster said, adding that both rocks showed water-related weathering. “That’s how these rocks were formed, and they record evidence of a habitable environment.” Using the rover’s instrument called Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals, or SHERLOC, to analyze the area where the rover collected the samples, the team found the highest concentration of organic matter yet during the mission. Organic matter, considered the building block of life, can be created through processes that involve life as well as other conditions, such as geological activity, that do not involve life. “If this is a treasure hunt for possible signs of life on another planet, organic matter is a clue. And we’re getting stronger and stronger clues as we move forward in our Delta campaign,” said Perseverance SHERLOC instrument scientist Sunanda Sharma. “I personally find these results so exciting because we feel like we are in the right place with the right tools at a very critical time.” NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover sample collection sites on the red planet. (Image: NASA_ The samples are about the size of a pinky and are stored in tubes until a follow-up mission can pick up Martian rocks from Perseverance in 2030.
What’s ahead? A critical robotic handover
This image shows a concept for a proposed NASA Sample Recovery Lander that would carry a small rocket (about 10 feet or 3 meters tall) called a Mars Ascent Vehicle to the surface of Mars. After being loaded with sealed tubes containing samples of Martian rock and soil collected by NASA’s Perseverance rover, the rocket would launch into Mars orbit. (Image: NASA) The rover’s biggest work is still ahead. Perseverance continues to take rock core samples and search for potential sample landing sites for a robotic sample return mission. To bring the first samples from Mars back to Earth, NASA and the European Space Agency have a complex plan involving a fleet of robots, including the Perseverance rover, a new Martian lander, a sample collection spacecraft and two tiny helicopters. The two space agencies simplified the initial sample return mission to Mars by removing a sample fetch rover and its associated lander. NASA and ESA managers said they changed the plan because of Perseverance’s expected longevity and the success of the Ingenuity lander, which has now completed 29 flights to Mars. The deputy administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Thomas Zurbuchen, said the plan had always been to have two methods of returning the samples to Earth, using Perseverance or another rover for the transfer. Instead of an extra rover, the plan is to use two tiny helicopters as a backup option and Percy as the primary. The rover is the primary means of transporting the samples to the Sample Retrieval Lander, which will carry the Mars Ascent Vehicle and ESA’s robotic transfer arm. Percy will also deposit a sample cache in the river delta as an “insurance policy” option before moving on to more ancient terrain on Mars. Future missions could take these samples. The ultimate goal is to return the first samples of Martian soil and rock to Earth for detailed analysis. Sharma said that returning the rock cores to Earth is the surest way to confirm the organic matter the science team believes they have found in the Martian rock samples. “Obviously, the instruments we have on the rover are outstanding, and the fact that we can make these observations of organic molecules on Mars, in the first place, is just awesome,” Sharma said. “But it’s really the level of detail spatially that will be different here on Earth.” NASA’s planetary science chief Lori Glaze said what the rover has found so far tells the team they’ve picked the right spot on Mars to explore. “Just the body of work that has been completed by this incredible Perseverance team to date tells me that we not only went to the right place, but sent the right spacecraft with the right science instruments to explore this amazing ancient environment on Mars.” Glaze said. In the coming months, Perseverance will explore an area known as Enchanted Lake to collect more samples.
