Four billion years ago, a terrifying impact struck Mars.
This impact peeled away layers of the crust, reaching a depth of up to 100 kilometers from the Martian surface.
Thus, the largest crater on Mars, the "Isidis Basin," with a diameter of up to 1500 kilometers, was formed.
Then, millions of years later, another smaller asteroid arrived at this crater.
This gave rise to the small "Jezero Crater," with a diameter of 49 kilometers, within the vast expanse of the Isidis Basin.
Over time, this crater gradually transformed into a picturesque, circular lake.
Today, we're heading to this serene location with the Mars rover "Perseverance."

Perseverance
On July 30, 2020, the "Atlas V" rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral Space Center.
This rocket embarked on a journey spanning several months, carrying the critically important payload of NASA's latest Mars rover, "Perseverance."
On February 18, 2021, this rover successfully landed on Mars.
And... for a long while, nothing happened.
Perseverance's primary mission includes the exploration for extraterrestrial life and the sampling of regolith and rocks to be returned to Earth.
However, the rover has other tasks to carry out during this mission.
For instance, it will use the MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment) demo unit to produce oxygen from carbon dioxide.
No, NASA currently doesn't have plans to terraform Mars or alter its atmosphere.

Sample Collection
However, Perseverance's primary mission remains the sampling of Martian soil and rocks.
To accomplish this, the rover carries 43 specialized test tubes for experiments and several tools, including a drill-equipped "robotic arm."
It drills into rocks and collects samples, depositing them into the test tubes.
Perseverance measures the mass of the samples and then sends them into its internal storage compartment.
Thirty-eight of these tubes are designated for collecting Martian soil samples.
The remaining five are "witness tubes," ensuring that there are no Earth contaminants and confirming proper sample collection.
With only 38 tubes available, careful selection of drilling locations and meticulous storage of results are paramount.
Perseverance collects two samples at various points along its complex route, accounting for this limitation.

Sample "Rubion"
On August 6, 2021, Perseverance finally fulfilled its mission on Mars.
In a location called Polygonal Valley, it collected the first-ever Martian soil sample, named "Roubion," from the bottom of the Jezero Crater.
All drilling operations and other maneuvers were successful, and scientists were ecstatic. However, upon examining the test tube, they discovered it was empty.
Shocked researchers realized that something had gone wrong.
Nevertheless, they speculated that it might still contain a sample of Martian atmosphere.
Wouldn't that be something!
The cause of the failure was rather simple.
The rocks Perseverance began to drill were too fragile and crumbled into dust.

Montdenier and Montagnac
Scientists, reeling from the failure of the initial sampling, made the decision to relocate the Mars rover to a ridge known as Artuby.
In doing so, they stumbled upon another intriguing object.
A large rock on the Martian surface, dubbed Rochette, became an enticing subject for research.
During the time when there was a lake in the crater, this rock clearly interacted with water.
This suggests potential chemical alterations to the rock.
Hence, the time had come to investigate further.

Hitchhiking Across the Red Planet
Perseverance is not merely remaining stationary.
It's traveling along complex routes, choosing the most intriguing spots to observe.
During this journey, Perseverance has made several new friends.
The first was a massive rock that got wedged under one of the rover's wheels on February 4, 2022.
This rock accompanied the rover for 427 sols (Martian days), traveling over 10 kilometers.

What Perseverance found
However, what truly astonished the scientists was another stone.
Though its shape may not be peculiar, what draws attention is its composition.
As of January 2024, Perseverance had collected eight samples of igneous rock, twelve samples of sedimentary rock, two samples of regolith, and one sample of atmosphere.
Surprisingly, magma-derived stones were found within the crater, which is actually a positive revelation.
This is because these stones perfectly preserve geological epochs.

Organic Matter
However, Perseverance had already found organic matter in the very first samples long ago.
These are not complex life forms but simple organic molecules like naphthalene that may have originated on Mars or arrived with asteroids.
Currently, the rover's instruments cannot identify the specific types of molecules, so we must wait until the samples are delivered to Earth.
The plan is to achieve this in the early 2030s, with another landing module arriving on Mars to collect and return the samples.