Whale Mountain Archives

The first tube containing rock samples collected on Mars was deposited on the Martian surface on Dec. 21, 2022. Currently, 15 rock samples are stored onboard the Perseverance rover awaiting transportation back to Earth, while 10 tubes — all duplicates — were placed on the surface as backups. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mars, Press Release, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, Sample Return, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Rocks Collected On Mars Hold The Key to Water and Perhaps Life. Bring Them Back To Earth.

by Keith CowingAugust 14, 2024August 14, 2024

Over the course of nearly five months in 2022, NASA’s Perseverance rover collected rock samples from Mars that could rewrite the history of water on the Red Planet and even […]

Whale Mountain

Rocks Collected On Mars Hold The Key to Water and Perhaps Life. Bring Them Back To Earth.

Opportunity to Contribute to NASA DARES Community White Paper on Phototrophic Biosignatures

NASA Establishes Mars Forward Operational Risk and Contamination Evaluation (M-FORCE) Tiger Team to Shape Mars Planetary Protection Protocols

Miraflores Butte On Mars

Ocean World Exploration: 2026 American Samoa ROV + Mapping Exploration

Development Of An Adaptive Optics Testbed At MPIA For The ELT/Planetary Camera And Spectrograph (PCS)