'Seeing our first sample on the ground is a great capstone to our prime mission period, which ends on Jan. 6.'
Once the tube was dropped, the team had to position thelocated at the end of Perseverance's robotic arm to confirm that the tube hadn't accidentally rolled into the path of the rover's wheels.
The scientists also wanted to make certain that the tube didn't land in a way that it was standing on its end. However, if it ever happened, the mission has a set of commands for Perseverance to knock the tube over.Since the rover landed last year in February, it has been collecting dust and rock samples. As per the architecture of the Mars Sample Return campaign, the rover would deliver samples to a future robotic lander.
"Seeing our first sample on the ground is a great capstone to our prime mission period, which ends on January 6," Rick Welch, Perseverance’s deputy project manager at JPL, said in a statement. "It’s a nice alignment that, just as we’re starting our cache, we’re also closing this first chapter of the mission."
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