The US space agency has confirmed that its Perseverance rover succeeded in taking its first rock sample from Mars.
"I got it!"
NASA tweeted in the early hours of Monday, along with a photo of the sample.
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The space agency said last week that it believed it had passed the sample, but uncertainty persisted as photos taken by the rover were inconclusive due to the lack of light.
The machine therefore had to take pictures.
“With better light on the bottom of the collection tube, you can see that the rock sample I collected is still there,”
Nasa said in its tweet.
Next step: recap the tube and store it.
NASA chose a rock the size of a briefcase, called "Rochette".
Perseverance had failed in its first attempt to remove a piece of rock from Mars in August because the stone was too crumbly.
In search of a trace of life
The module, which is the size of a large SUV, landed on February 18 in Jezero crater, which scientists believe was home to a deep lake 3.5 billion years ago.
An environment that could have created the conditions necessary for extraterrestrial life.
Its objective: to look for signs of ancient life, such as traces of microbial life fossilized in rocks, but also to better understand Martian geology.
NASA is planning a mission to bring back thirty samples to Earth in the 2030s, so that they can be analyzed by much more sophisticated instruments than those that can be brought to Mars at present.
