Maria-Paz Zorzano, Germán Martínez, Jouni Polkko, Leslie K Tamppari, Claire Newman, Hannu Savijärvi, Yulia Goreva, Daniel Viúdez-Moreiras, Tanguy Bertrand, Michael Smith, Elisabeth M Hausrath, Sandra Siljeström, Kathleen Benison, Tanja Bosak, Andrew D Czaja, Vinciane Debaille, Christopher D K Herd, Lisa Mayhew, Mark A Sephton, David Shuster, Justin I Simon, Benjamin Weiss, Nicolas Randazzo, Lucia Mandon, Adrian Brown, Michael H Hecht, Jesús Martínez-Frías
The Mars Sample Return mission intends to retrieve a sealed collection of rocks, regolith, and atmosphere sampled from Jezero Crater, Mars, by the NASA Perseverance rover mission. For all life-related research, it is necessary to evaluate water availability in the samples and on Mars. Within the first Martian year, Perseverance has acquired an estimated total mass of 355 g of rocks and regolith, and 38 μmoles of Martian atmospheric gas. Using in-situ observations acquired by the Perseverance rover, we show that the present-day environmental conditions at Jezero allow for the hydration of sulfates, chlorides, and perchlorates and the occasional formation of frost as well as a diurnal atmospheric-surface water exchange of 0...
March 26, 2024: Scientific Reports