It may look like a lightsaber sitting on the surface of Mars, but this titanium tube is actually a sample canister dropped off by the Perseverance rover. This could eventually be the first pristine ...

The team has made good progress implementing the initial recovery steps outlined in last week’s blog. Our first success: The upper two pebbles were ejected from the bit carousel during a test. This is ...

Even the director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory thinks the Perseverance rover's rock sample tube looks like it belongs in a galaxy far, far away. Freelance writer Amanda C. Kooser covers gadgets ...

Second time's the charm. Sample tube 266 contains the rover's first rock, which NASA hopes to bring back to Earth on future missions for further study. Reading time 2 minutes For the Perseverance Mars ...

Marvels of engineering, the rover’s sample tubes must be tough enough to safely bring Red Planet samples on the long journey back to Earth in immaculate condition. The tubes carried in the belly of ...

Look carefully at this new image taken just days ago on Mars, and you might mistake that object sitting on the dusty barren surface as… wait, is that a lightsaber? The rover hasn't gotten clumsy. The ...

The director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory wants to be a Jedi. Laurie Leshlin, peering at footage of a lightsaber-shaped sample tube dropped yesterday on Mars (Dec. 21) by NASA's Perseverance ...

Freelance writer Amanda C. Kooser covers gadgets and tech news with a twist for CNET. When not wallowing in weird gear and iPad apps for cats, she can be found tinkering with her 1956 DeSoto. In a ...

Perseverance's Sample Tube Looks Clean: This image, taken by the Mastcam-Z camera aboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover on Jan. 20, 2022, shows the rover successfully expelled the remaining large ...