Free Astronomy Magazine March-April 2021

us means that neither mission has to sacrifice payload or precious space to accommodate both. For the samples collected by Percy, the “fetch rover” (although one can only imagine that such a collection mission would be far more efficient with a more advanced version of In- genuity) and return vehicle are cur- rently slated to bring this precious cargo back to Earth in 2031. (4) “Preparing for humans” – the most exciting news about our moon this past decade was the identifica- tion of water ice on its surface, meaning a potential fuel supply is 49 MARCH-APRIL 2021 MARS ROVERS A n artist’s concept of Jezero Crater at a time billions of years in the past, when rivers filled the crater depth to form a standing lake while also depositing clays and other mate- rials that exist in the form of dry deltas to this day. [NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU]