NASA’s Mars rover «Perseverance», which is currently operating in a new region called Bright Angel, has found further evidence of the potential presence of water in the Jezero crater in the past.
«Bright Angel» — is a scientifically interesting region, as it is believed to be part of the channel of a reservoir that once flowed into the Jezero crater. It is filled with non-standard light rocks whose structure hints at a past location at the bottom of the river, and now «Perseverance» has given scientists the opportunity to examine them up close.
The path to the region was not easy for the rover, given the large field with boulders — so the operators were forced to look for a detour, which somewhat complicated the mission and extended it by several weeks.
«We started going through the channel in late January and made pretty good progress, but then the boulders got bigger and more numerous,» said Evan Grazer, deputy manager of strategic planning for the «Perseverance» route at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. «Whereas we used to travel an average of more than a hundred meters per Martian day, the distance covered has since dropped to just tens of meters».
Eventually, when «Perseverance» got to the stones, geologists were able to examine them to confirm their assumptions — some had a strange uneven surface and light color, which is why they were called «popcorn rocks» (this structure, according to scientists, indicates the flow of water).
Also noticed in the region are many ridges that look like mineral veins, hinting at the deposition of minerals on the rocks during the transportation of a potential water flow.
Next, NASA scientists will try to determine what minerals the rocks contain using the SuperCam instrument suite at «Perseverance». The mission to return the samples to Earth will likely include these results as well.
Perseverancehit to Mars in February 2021, landing in the crater Jezero to search for signs of ancient microbial life on the planet and collect samples of the Martian environment. Currently, the rover is carrying 17 samples of the Red Planet’s rocks, and their duplicates are additionally stored in a special storage facility located in the Three Forks region in case of unforeseen situations. In February 2023, the rover I dropped the ten test tube.
NASA this year stated, which is looking for alternative options for returning samples to Earth and has planned a dozen studies involving 7 companies (including SpaceX). It is expected that the participants will be able to improve the current plan or propose a radically new one.
Source: NASA, ScienceAlert