English: Perseverance's Portrait of the first Sample Depot located at "Three Forks" Sol 693

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover captured this portrait of its recently completed sample depot using its Mastcam-Z camera on Jan. 31, 2023, the 693rd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. This panorama is made up of 368 individual images that were stitched together after being sent back to Earth. The color in the scene has been adjusted to show the Martian surface as it would look to the human eye.

Each sample tube is approximately 7 inches (18 centimeters) long and .8 inches (2 centimeters) in diameter.

The “Amalik” sample closest to the rover was approximately 10 feet (3 meters) away from the camera at the time the image was taken. The “Atsah” and “Skyland” samples were approximately 66 feet (20 meters) away. “Bearwallow,” “Coulettes,” “Montdenier,” “Crosswind Lake,” and “Roubion” were approximately 115 to 164 feet (35 to 50 meters) away. “Mageik” and “Malay” were approximately 197 feet (60 meters) away.

This is a natural-color view of the scene, showing the surface as it would appear to a human observer. This view is an enhanced-color version annotated with the names of each of the samples in the depot.

Throughout its science campaigns, the rover has been taking a pair of samples from rocks the mission team deems scientifically significant. One sample from each pair taken so far now sits in the depot – along with one atmospheric sample and one “witness” tube – for a total of 10 tubes that were carefully arranged on the surface in a zigzag pattern.

The depot is a crucial milestone in the NASA-ESA (European Space Agency) Mars Sample Return campaign, which aims to bring Mars samples to Earth for closer study. The Perseverance rover will be the primary means to hand off the collected samples to a future robotic lander as part of the campaign. The lander would, in turn, use a robotic arm to place the samples in a containment capsule aboard a small rocket that would blast off to Mars orbit, where another spacecraft would capture the sample container and return it safely to Earth. Hosting a duplicate set, the depot will serve as a backup if Perseverance can’t deliver its samples.

Perseverance built the depot at “Three Forks,” a location within Mars’ Jezero Crater. Billions of years ago, this crater was filled by a lake and delta. Sediment that built up in the delta formed a steep mound that Perseverance will be driving up in the months ahead to arrive at the top of the delta.