United States: Eight of ten sample tubes have been dropped by the Perseverance rover at a sample depot being built in the Three Forks area of the Jezero Crater region of Mars.

Through the Mars Sample Return (MRS) campaign, NASA and ESA plan to bring back samples from the Red Planet for additional research. This sample depot is being made as a backup.

The first sample depot of its kind on another planet is being built by NASA's Perseverance rover, which is slated to begin work on it in December 2022. In early January, Percy completed construction of a sample store at a 50% completion rate.

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There are still two sample drops left before the depot expires. On January 6, the rover's primary mission, which lasted one Martian year, ended.

A piece of sandstone that had just been dropped from the sample tube contains clues about the moist environment from which it was raised.
In a tweet, NASA said that "the individual grains within this rock were brought here by a river that flowed long ago." It has information about how it was further upstream, so that's good.

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In this way samples from Mars will be delivered to Earth. To collect samples from Persey, a sample return lander will land in Jezero Crater and be armed with a small rocket. The Sample Depot will act as a reserve if the rover is unable to deliver samples.

Additionally, two helicopters similar to Ingenuity will provide backup capability for retrieving samples from the surface of Mars.

A second spacecraft in Mars orbit would be ready to receive the sample cache after leaving the planet, and then safely return it to Earth. This is estimated to happen between the early and mid 2030s.

The samples of Mars being brought back to Earth will help us determine whether there ever was life on Mars.

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The MRS campaign is historic for several reasons. For starters, this will be the first time multiple vehicles such as a lander, a rocket and several helicopters will simultaneously land on the surface of Mars.

Almost there – nine tubes down!

Why is my team excited about this one? This core sample came from an igneous rock back near my landing site. Brought back to Earth, it could tell scientists a lot about the earliest history of this lakebed area. But that’s not all... pic.twitter.com/uCPewfKyxN

— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) January 20, 2023