Meet the Mars Samples: Atmo Mountain and Crosswind Lake (Samples 17 and 18)

Meet two of the Martian samples that have been collected and are awaiting return to Earth as part of the Mars Sample Return campaign. As of early August 2023, NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover has collected and sealed 20 scientifically selected samples inside pristine tubes. The next stage is to get them back for study.

Considered one of the highest priorities by the scientists in the Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032, Mars Sample Return would be the first mission to return samples from another planet and provides the best opportunity to reveal the early evolution of Mars, including the potential for ancient life. NASA is teaming with ESA (European Space Agency) on this important endeavor.

Learn more about Samples No. 17 and 18 – “Atmo Mountain” and “Crosswind Lake,” the mission’s first samples of the Mars surface material known as “regolith.” The samples were collected from a low, wind-blown ripple and contain loose material representing a range of grain sizes such as dust, sand, and pebbles. Martian wind can carry smaller grains like this over long distances, so regolith can provide insight into the global and local landscape, all in a single “grab bag.”

Read about all the carefully selected samples: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars-rock-samples

Learn more about the Mars Sample Return campaign: https://mars.nasa.gov/msr

A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover characterizes the planet's geology and past climate, paves the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and is the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith.

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MARS ROCK SAMPLES

SAMPLE 17 & 18: ATMO MOUNTAIN & CROSSWIND LAKE

TYPE: REGOLITH

LOCATION: OBSERVATION MOUNTAIN

RACHEL KRONYAK
SCIENCE OPERATIONS - MARS PERSEVERANCE ROVER

Rachel Kronyak: Sample number 17 is called “Atmo Mountain.” Sample number 18 is called “Crosswind Lake.” This pair of samples was collected from the Observation Mountain location near the Delta Front.

This was our first pair of regolith samples, which is very different from the rock core samples that we were collecting up until this point. Regolith essentially just means loose material and represent a range of grain sizes. The scientists on the team referred to it as a jewelry box because you have all of this different material, all in one sample. We have sand, pebbles, dust, so we can get a really good sense for what this material is made out of; where it came from.

SUNANDA SHARMA
ASTROBIOLOGIST - MARS PERSEVERANCE ROVER

Sunanda Sharma: What's exciting about these is that they can represent a much broader region. So most of the rocks that we observe have been in that place for at least some amount of time. Dust can have been transported way more frequently. So we might be getting sort of a window out beyond just Observation Mountain or even just the Delta Front.

Rachel Kronyak: And it also helps us understand some context for eventual human exploration of Mars, because we want to know how the really fine grained materials like dust interact with spacecraft and material and also with astronauts that are exploring the surface.

We decided to drop the Crosswind Lake sample into the Three Forks sample depot. This was our last paired sample before Perseverance dropped ten tubes in the sample depot at Three Forks. So from here on out, we're going to be collecting single samples at each of our sampling locations.

Sunanda Sharma: There's value in observing something where it's been for a long time, but there's also value in observing something that's transported a lot because basically we can't get everywhere on this traverse. So if we can pick samples that have been a lot more places, we can get like a bigger diversity, easier.

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For more information on Mars Rock Samples: mars.nasa.gov/mars-rock-samples