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Is that a lightsaber spotted on Mars?

The depot marks a historic early step in the Mars Sample Return campaign.

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The lightsaber-shaped titanium tube containing a rock sample resting on Mars' surface. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS via SWNS)

By Dean Murray via SWNS

An incredible new picture shows a lightsaber-shaped object on Mars.

However, this sci-fi-style scene actually features a titanium tube containing a rock sample resting on the Red Planetā€™s surface.

It was placed there Wednesday, December 21, by NASAā€™s Perseverance Mars rover - ready to be blasted back to Earth on a small spacecraft.

The sample tube will form a "depot of tubes" that could be considered for a journey to Earth by the Mars Sample Return campaign.

Over the next two months, the rover will deposit a total of ten tubes at the location, called ā€œThree Forks,ā€ building humanityā€™s first sample depot on another planet.

Artist illustration of the Mars rock sample being returned to Earth. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS via SWNS)

The depot marks a historic early step in the Mars Sample Return campaign.

Perseverance has been taking duplicate samples from rock targets the mission selects. The rover currently has the other 17 samples (including one atmospheric sample) taken so far in its belly.

Based on the architecture of the Mars Sample Return campaign, the rover would deliver samples to a future robotic lander.

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.

The lightsaber-shaped titanium tube containing a rock sample resting on Mars' surface. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS via SWNS)

The depot will serve as a backup if Perseverance canā€™t deliver its samples. In that case, a pair of Sample Recovery Helicopters would be called upon to finish the job.

In coming weeks, scientists have other opportunities to check Perseverance's progress in making more sample deposits at the Three Forks cache.

Rick Welch, Perseveranceā€™s deputy project manager at JPL, explains: "Seeing our first sample on the ground is a great capstone to our prime mission period, which ends on Jan. 6.

"Itā€™s a nice alignment that, just as weā€™re starting our cache, weā€™re also closing this first chapter of the mission."

A key objective for Perseveranceā€™s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life.

The rover will characterize the planetā€™s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith.

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