NASA Perseverance rover collects first Mars rock sample

The sample, a core from Jezero Crater slightly thicker than a pencil, is now enclosed in an airtight titanium sample tube, which will hopefully be retrieved and returned to Earth through a future Mars Sample Return mission. These samples would be the first set of scientifically identified and selected materials returned to our planet from another.

"Using the most sophisticated science instruments on Earth, we expect jaw-dropping discoveries across a broad set of science areas, including exploration into the question of whether life once existed on Mars,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA headquarters in Washington.

To take the sample, a rotary-percussive drill at the end of Perseverance’s robotic arm cored into a flat, briefcase-size Mars rock nicknamed “Rochette.” The arm manoeuvred the corer, bit, and sample tube so the rover’s Mastcam-Z camera instrument could image the contents of the still-unsealed tube and transmit the results back to Earth. After mission controllers confirmed the cored rock’s presence in the tube, they sent a command to complete processing of the sample.