Seven down, three to go: Perseverance drops another sample tube on Mars; depot now 70% complete

NASA's Perseverance has dropped seven out of 10 sample tubes at the Three Forks region of Mars and with this, the sample depot that the rover is building on the Red Planet is now 70% complete.

The rock core in the seventh sample tube is from an abraded rock at “Wildcat Ridge” in the ancient river delta nearby. Perseverance collected a pair of samples of fine-grained sedimentary rock from this outcrop and based on initial studies, these samples could have good characteristics for preserving signs of ancient microbes, if those were ever present here.

🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴⚪⚪⚪Sample Depot now 70% complete!The rock core in this tube is from a fine-grained mudstone, formed in the ancient river delta nearby. It’s the kind of rock that could be good for preserving signs of ancient life (if life was ever present here). 🔍 pic.twitter.com/MP64fBkGHr

— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) January 13, 2023

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover, which landed on the Planet in February 2021, is the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). A key goal of NASA's Perseverance mission is to search for signs of ancient microbial life on Mars.

With the data and samples collected by Perseverance, scientists hope to gain a better understanding of the history of Mars and the potential for life to have existed there.

Perseverance rover is planned as the primary method of delivering samples to NASA's Sample Retrieval Lander that will launch to Mars in future. However, if it fails to deliver the onboard samples to the lander, this sample depot will act as a backup. To retrieve these samples, two Sample Recovery Helicopters, based on the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, will be launched in 2028.