NASA’s Martian rover has finished hoarding samples that might contain proof of ancient life

Verge ^ | By JESS WEATHERBED Jan 31, 2023, 11:05 AM CST

[Red Badger]

Perseverance has been depositing secondary samples of rock collected from Mars across the planet’s surface just in case it fails to deliver its onboard samples during a future collection mission. Image: NASA

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NASA’s Perseverance rover has dropped the last of 10 sample tubes onto the surface of Mars, thereby completing humanity’s “first sample depot on another world.” The rover began depositing titanium tubes containing samples of rock and dust six weeks ago as part of the Mars sample return mission to collect Martian material and deliver it to Earth for further study.

Perseverance landed on Mars in February 2021, touching down inside a 28-mile-wide bowl known as Jezero Crater with a core mission to look for signs of ancient microbial life and gather samples of the Martian environment. Scientists believe that, billions of years ago, Jezero Crater may have contained a river that flowed into a vast lake, which could have provided the necessary environment to support microbial life.

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NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover

@NASAPersevere

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And that's 🔟!

With a final tube drop, I’ve completed the diverse backup set of samples I’m setting down. Future #MarsSampleReturn robots could come for these, or if all goes well, I’ll have lots more fascinating stuff in hand when they get here.

More: http://go.nasa.gov/3DjZWof

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The rover is currently carrying 17 primary samples, which the space agency hopes can eventually be delivered to a sample return lander and delivered back to Earth. The freshly completed sample depot⁠ — located in the Three Forks region of the Jezero Crater ⁠— will serve as a backup cache in case Perseverance is unable to deliver its onboard samples. The location of each tube has been carefully mapped so that they can be found and collected by two Ingenuity-like helicopters, even if covered with dust.

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Perseverance has been programmed to carefully knock over any tubes that land vertically on their end (as above) to make them easier to pick up in a future mission. Image: NASA

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While the table has been set at Three Forks, Perseverance is reportedly still in good condition and will now undertake an extended mission to explore the nearby Delta Top territory. The Delta Top campaign is expected to last around eight months and will investigate rocks and sediment that appear to have been carried into the Jezero Crater by an ancient river.

This map shows where the Perseverance rover dropped each of its 10 samples in the Three Forks region of the Jezero Crater. Image: NASA

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The focus of the main mission now turns to the future reclamation of the Martian samples. Defense contractor Lockheed Martin was entrusted with building the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) last year, which is required to lift off from the Red Planet’s surface — making it the first rocket to ever launch from another planet if successful — and pass the collected samples to a spacecraft being built by the European Space Agency, which will subsequently deliver the precious cargo into the hands of eager scientists back on Earth.

VIDEO AT LINK....................

NASA currently estimates that the sample retrieval lander will land by 2028 at the earliest and that the collected samples won’t arrive on Earth until at least 2033.

That is, obviously, far easier said than done. The Mars sample return mission represents over a decade of work and requires numerous incredibly complex steps to succeed, some of which have never previously been attempted — such as landing a rocket on Mars that’s capable of taking off again. If the teams behind the mission can successfully pull off these herculean efforts, however, we will be closer than we’ve ever been to knowing if life has existed beyond our Earth.

[Red Badger]

Martian Take-out Service Ping!..................

[butlerweave]

pooping them out everywhere

[PIF]

Between now and 2028, if NASA still exists, some of the samples will have broken containment, colonized the container where they await their next meal, others will have escaped back into the wild ...

[cyclotic]

A single biological cell will be see as incontrovertable proof of life on mars, yet a fully intact unborn baby is seen as simply a clump of nothing that can be disposed of at will on earth.

[Qwapisking]

My thinking too. IF someone or something else has already staked a claim then we just pooped on their proverbial lawn. NOT a good way to win new friends. Not to mention it could start a pooping war and their poops could be MUCH larger than ours. Just sayin’.

[EvilCapitalist]

You’re reminding me of a scene from South Park. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGp6BYNY-Q

[freedomjusticeruleoflaw]

Want to know how many astrophysicist/cosmologists really think these samples will contain evidence of ancient Martian life? Ask them to bet.

[Nifster]

Gee I sure hope the winds cooperate

[moovova]

[libertylover]

A single biological cell will be see as incontrovertable proof of life on mars, yet a fully intact unborn baby is seen as simply a clump of nothing that can be disposed of at will on earth.

Good point, but I think the term "preborn" is better than "unborn".

[chaosagent]

Just have Elon pick them up when he gets there in a few years.

[Red Badger]

And charge them for shipping.......................

[stremba]

Speaking as a scientist, this article certainly reeks of media hype. It does make it sound as if the presence of an ancient river would almost guarantee that lifww we was present. Of course that’s garbage. The likelihood that life emerged on ancient Mars is pretty low. Combine that fact with the fact that these are small samples of Martian soil. This means that even if there had been life on Mars there is a good chance that these samples would not show any evidence of that.

The mission to return these samples to Earth is a complex and interesting one with plenty of engineering challenges to overcome. That should be interesting enough as it is; we shouldn’t need to hype the idea that these samples might contain evidence of Martian life. If they do, we will find out when (assuming a successful mission) the samples are brought back and studied.

[stremba]

You make a good point, but to be clear it’s only the second part of your point that is flawed. Finding a biological cell on Mars would most certainly be definitive proof that life existed there. I am pretty sure that is extremely unlikely to occur. Evidence for life in these samples more likely would consist of finding biochemicals such as amino acids, nucleus acids and the like rather than intact cells. Currentl conditions on Mars are pretty inhospitable for life.

[freedomjusticeruleoflaw]

Even simple life is incredibly complex. The more we learn the LESS the “primordial soup” theory seems credible. Every first step into anything approaching life needs laboratory conditions to sustain viability. Earth seems conducive to life only because we are billions of years away from its chaotic childhood. If you can ever secure a bet about Mars having life levy the farm and vote no.

[freedomjusticeruleoflaw]

Current conditions on Mars are inhospitable to amino acids. Why did scientists choose “amino acids” as the precursor for life? Because it was the only reasonable jumping off point they could find outside of a laboratory. Abiogenesis theory is classical backwards reasoning. Life HAD to start somehow, so let’s pretend about mud and lightning and invent word salads like primordial soup.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Red Badger. Gavin Lewin's experiment aboard the Viking lander already suggested microbial life, and NASA's spent the decades since denying it. It's all about neutralizing political threats to funding.

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[Paal Gulli]

"NASA’s Martian rover has finished hoarding samples that might contain proof of ancient life"

It also might contain proof of where Jimmy Hoffa is buried, who kidnapped the Lindbergh baby, and how many angels can swim in the head of a beer.