Studying the remnants of the backsphere may prove useful to NASA’s next big Mars adventure — bringing rocks and soil back from Mars to Earth for more detailed study. That mission, called Mars Sample Return, will need to place two landers on the surface – a rover to collect rock samples that are drilled by perseverance, and a small rocket to launch the samples into orbit for another spacecraft to pick up and return to Earth.
“We use our best models, all of our best analysis tools,” Mr. Clark said. Images help check how well the models and analysis worked, adding confidence to the models in the future.
Kenneth Farley, the expedition project scientist, was intrigued not only by the “really amazing” images of the devices but also what happened to the device.
“It is remarkable that this debris terminated directly at the contact between the two rock formations in the crater floor,” Dr. Farley said in an email. Both formations, called Seitah and Maaz, are made of igneous rocks. But they are very different in composition. Setah is rich in olivine which has settled in thick magma, possibly a lava lake. Maaz, higher and therefore younger, has a composition similar to most basaltic lava flows – full of minerals known as pyroxene and plagioclase but with little or no olivine.
The two formations meet at a line of rock that extends from the back cover to an area just next to the canopy. “We want to know how these rocks might relate to each other,” Dr. Farley said.
Expedition scientists were so fascinated by geology that creativity made another pass over the line between Sittah and Muaz on Sunday. Those images will be sent back to Earth on Thursday.