There’s higher gear on Earth
For all of the wonders robotic area missions have to supply, they’re restricted by mass, energy, and measurement necessities. We are able to’t carry all our massive, exact laboratory gear to area. That limits us after we need to exactly know a rock’s age, the situations through which it shaped, and whether or not it carries signatures of previous life, mentioned Jeffrey Johnson, a planetary geologist on the Johns Hopkins College Utilized Physics Laboratory.
“Many Martian science goals can solely be achieved by analyzing returned samples in laboratories on Earth,” he mentioned. “The delicate devices at such services can detect delicate chemical, mineralogical, and morphological signatures with higher precision and accuracy than is feasible with miniaturized robotic devices on the Martian floor.”
Whereas a single spacecraft instrument tends to be designed for one specific operate, the samples we return from Mars will be subjected to the complete vary of present and future scientific instruments obtainable on Earth.
“It’s not that we will’t miniaturize and flight-harden one instrument, it’s that we will’t do it for all of the devices and analyses that we’d be capable of carry out on these rocks as soon as they’re returned to Earth,” mentioned Amy Williams, an assistant professor in geological sciences on the College of Florida.
Many vital analytical assessments carried out on rock and soil samples require cautious preparation utilizing fluids or slicing at ultrafine, nanometer scales. That simply can’t occur on Mars. Nor can we convey to Mars the complete vary of kit present in a single geosciences division, not to mention the scope of superior laboratories across the Earth. With returned samples, a number of labs will work collectively to validate, confirm, and make sure key findings — a number of strains of proof for, and confidence in, vital scientific discoveries. This degree of certainty and reproducibility is crucial for bombshell outcomes corresponding to a potential signal of previous life.
