NASA confirms: “Perseverance” robot took rock sample from Mars

The American space agency NASA confirmed Tuesday that its rover “Perseverance” had succeeded in extracting the first sample of rock from the planet Mars.

The agency posted a photo of the sample on Twitter, along with a “We got it” comment, according to “Agence France Presse”.

Last week, NASA suggested that its robot had extracted this sample

However, the photos taken were not clear enough due to the poor lighting and did not allow him to definitively confirm the case.

“With better illumination of the bottom of the collecting tube, you can see the rock sample,” the agency tweeted.

The sample was taken from a rock the size of a briefcase bearing the name “Rochet”.

Last August, the Perseverance robot rover failed in its attempt to take a piece of rock from Mars, the first of around 30 samples to be sent back to Earth within a few years for analysis.

This step aims to look for signs of ancient life, such as traces of fossilized microbial life in the rocks.

Also, to better understand the geology of Mars, given that the mission was launched from Florida a year and a half ago.

“Perseverance,” which is the size of a large SUV, landed on Feb. 18 in Jezero Crater, which scientists say contained a deep lake 3.5 billion years ago.