The Perseverance Mars rover has been sampling the Martian geology at a record-breaking rate, thanks to its discovery of a special area containing “all they hoped for.” Since landing in 2021, the rover has explored the Jezero Crater, which was once home to a lake billions of years ago.
The rover has conducted nearly 100 sampling efforts since summiting the crater and is still gathering more samples. The team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is excited about the discoveries, with Project Scientist Katie Morgan stating that there are new and intriguing rocks everywhere on the crater rim.
One notable discovery is a rock sample code-named “Shallow Bay,” which may be billions of years old and was broken up by an ancient meteor impact. The rover has also collected samples of five rocks, performed detailed analysis on seven others, and zapped 83 rocks with its laser for remote study.
However, the team is facing a challenge in returning the samples to Earth due to rising costs for the sample return mission, now estimated at $11 billion. NASA is overhauling the plan and soliciting new proposals from industry and academia to find a more affordable and faster way to achieve this goal.
Source: https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/perseverance-rover-stumbles-upon-mars-rock-bonanza-it-has-been-all-we-had-hoped-for-and-more