Perseverance is the first rover to bring a sample caching system to Mars that will package promising samples for return to Earth by a future mission.
Perseverance's drill will cut intact rock cores that are about the size of a piece of chalk and will place them in sample tubes that it will store until the rover reaches an appropriate drop-off location.
The Mars sample return campaign is being planned by NASA and the European Space Agency to investigate the samples with instruments too large and complex to send to Mars. Examining those samples on Earth will provide far more information about them than even the most sophisticated rover could provide, said NASA.
"In 2026, we're going to launch a mission from Earth to Mars to go pick up those samples and bring them back to Earth," Bridenstine said. "For the first time in history, we're doing a Mars sample return mission."
Perseverance will also be collecting important data about Mars' geology and climate. studying the Red Planet's geology and climate could also offer a sense of why Earth and Mars -- which formed from the same primordial stuff -- ended up so different, said NASA.
Perseverance also ferries a 1.8-kg helicopter to the surface of Mars, and the helicopter would be the first aircraft to fly in a controlled way on another planet.
The twin-rotor, solar-powered helicopter, Ingenuity, is intended to demonstrate technologies needed for flying in the Martian atmosphere. If successful, these technologies could enable other advanced robotic flying vehicles that might be included in the future robotic and human missions to Mars, said NASA.
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