The Perseverance rover has been busy collecting rock-core samples, as well as sending back incredible imagery of the Red Planet
NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover has been busy collecting rock-core samples in an area thought by scientists to be ideal for finding ancient signs of microbial life on Mars. The rover has also been taking some extraordinary pictures along the way. Perseverance is in its second science campaign, following a 31-Martian-day (or sol) dash across approximately 3 miles (5 kilometers) of Mars . The journey took Perseverance to the “doorstep of Jezero Crater’s ancient river delta” on April 13. Since arriving, the rover has been collecting rock-core samples and capturing highly detailed imagery.”We picked the Jezero Crater for Perseverance to explore because we thought it had the best chance of providing scientifically excellent samples – and now we know we sent the rover to the right location,” remarked Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s Associate Administrator for Science in Washington. “These first two science campaigns have yielded an amazing diversity of samples to bring back to Earth by the Mars Sample Return Campaign.
