NASA's Perseverance to Collect Martian Rock Sample in Two Weeks

A 3D model of the SuperCam instrument aboard Nasa's
Perseverance rover, at a landing day display at the French National
Center for Space Studies (CNES) in Paris. {Photo: Pool/Reuters)
A 3D model of the SuperCam instrument aboard Nasa's Perseverance rover, at a landing day display at the French National Center for Space Studies (CNES) in Paris. {Photo: Pool/Reuters)
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NASA's Perseverance to Collect Martian Rock Sample in Two Weeks

A 3D model of the SuperCam instrument aboard Nasa's
Perseverance rover, at a landing day display at the French National
Center for Space Studies (CNES) in Paris. {Photo: Pool/Reuters)
A 3D model of the SuperCam instrument aboard Nasa's Perseverance rover, at a landing day display at the French National Center for Space Studies (CNES) in Paris. {Photo: Pool/Reuters)

Using a two-meter robotic arm, and high-end laser-equipped SuperCam camera, Perseverance Mars rover is preparing to collect its first rock sample from the site of an ancient lake bed, implementing its top mission on the Red Planet.

"When Neil Armstrong took the first sample from the Sea of Tranquility 52 years ago, he began a process that would rewrite what humanity knew about the Moon," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters, according to AFP.

"I have every expectation that Perseverance's first sample from Jezero Crater, and those that come after, will do the same for Mars," he added.

Perseverance landed on the Red Planet on February 18, in the Jezero Crater. The team believes the latter was home to an ancient lake 3.5 billion years ago. The rover has been sent to look for evidence on possible past life on March.

Since then, the rover moved about a kilometer to the south of its landing site.

"Now we're looking at environments that are much further in the past—billions of years in the past," project scientist Ken Farley told reporters.

The team believes the crater was once home to an ancient lake that filled and drew down multiple times, potentially creating the conditions necessary for life.

Analyzing samples will reveal clues about the rocks' chemical and mineral composition—revealing things like whether they were formed by volcanoes or are sedimentary in origin.

The rover will also scour for possible signs of ancient microbes.

Farley said that a small cliff that harbored fine-layered rocks might have been formed from lake muds, though it will be a few more months before Perseverance reaches that outcrop.

Each rock Perseverance analyzes will have an untouched geologic "twin" stored in the rover.

Eventually, NASA is planning a return mission with the European Space Agency to collect the stored samples and return them to Earth, sometime in the 2030s.



Study Documents Extinction Threats to World's Freshwater Species

African tiger fish (Hydrocynus vittatus) swim in the Okavango river, Botswana in this undated handout picture. Michel Roggo/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
African tiger fish (Hydrocynus vittatus) swim in the Okavango river, Botswana in this undated handout picture. Michel Roggo/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
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Study Documents Extinction Threats to World's Freshwater Species

African tiger fish (Hydrocynus vittatus) swim in the Okavango river, Botswana in this undated handout picture. Michel Roggo/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
African tiger fish (Hydrocynus vittatus) swim in the Okavango river, Botswana in this undated handout picture. Michel Roggo/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

Freshwater environments cover about 1% of Earth's surface while accounting for more than 10% of known species. Like many marine and terrestrial ecosystems, however, they are in distress. A new study looking at some of the denizens of freshwater habitats offers a stark illustration of this biodiversity predicament.

Researchers assessed the status of 23,496 species of freshwater animals in groups including fishes, crustaceans such as crabs, crayfish and shrimp and insects such as dragonflies and damselflies, finding 24% of them at a high risk of extinction, Reuters reported.

"Prevalent threats include pollution, dams and water extraction, agriculture and invasive species, with overharvesting also driving extinctions," said conservationist Catherine Sayer, lead author of the study published on Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Sayer heads the freshwater biodiversity unit at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the organization that tracks the status of species globally.

Some of the freshwater species deemed at high risk bear exotic names such as the mini blue bee shrimp of Sulawesi, the Seychelles duskhawker dragonfly, the Atlantic helicopter damselfly of Brazil, the daisy burrowing crayfish of Arkansas and fishes such as the shortnose sucker of Oregon and California and the humpbacked mahseer of India.

The study filled a gap in data on freshwater biodiversity. The studied species were selected because their diverse positions within food webs present a holistic view of the health of freshwater ecosystems globally.

These species inhabit inland wetlands such as lakes, rivers, swamps, marshes and peatlands - areas that the researchers said have been reduced by more than a third since 1970. Other research has documented the status of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians that share these freshwater ecosystems and often face their own unique threats.

Of the animal groups investigated in the new study, the highest threat levels were documented in the crustaceans (30% threatened) followed by the fishes (26%) and the dragonflies and damselflies (16%).

"Freshwater ecosystems are ecologically important because of the diversity of species they support. Some of them may have high numbers of species that are restricted just to those systems - a single lake or pool or river," said Northern Arizona University freshwater conservationist Ian Harrison, a member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission and a study co-author.

"They are also important in terms of the ecosystem services they supply: carbon sequestration in terms of peat bogs; food in terms of fisheries; medicines from plants; as well as cultural and aesthetic values. Freshwater reeds are used for building houses in some areas. Freshwater ecosystems contribute $50 trillion in value annually by their provision of natural processes supporting human well-being," Harrison said.

The researchers identified four places globally with the largest number of threatened freshwater species: Lake Victoria in Africa, Lake Titicaca in South America and regions in western India and Sri Lanka.

Lake Victoria, the world's second-largest freshwater lake by surface area, is bordered by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The key threats identified to species were pollution, overfishing, agriculture and invasive species, particularly the Nile perch and water hyacinth. Lake Titicaca is situated on the border between Peru and Bolivia in the Andes. It was found to face a similar cadre of threats as Lake Victoria. Both lakes boast a rich diversity of fishes.

"There is an urgent need to focus on freshwater conservation to halt the decline in species, and this can be achieved through a more integrated management of water resources that can include the maintenance of ecosystem functions within the process of addressing the obviously important human needs for water," Harrison said.

"The particular value of this study is that it shows us which river basins, lakes, et cetera, are the ones where the conservation challenges are most urgent and serious," Harrison added. "And we can compare this to what we know about existing protections, and identify where there are gaps and where there are conservation needs. And it acts as a baseline of information from which we can track progress, to see if our actions are reducing threats."