Tale of collection of first Martian land sample by NASA's Perseverance rover- In pics

The rocks date to 3.5 billion years ago, making them some of the oldest in the entire solar system and will give scientists a glimpse at what conditions were like when the planets were only just forming. (Image Credit: NASA)

The target for the sample collection attempt was a briefcase-size rock belonging to a ridgeline that is more than half-a-mile (900 meters) long and contains rock outcrops and boulders. (Image Credit: NASA)

Perseverance’s Sampling and Caching System uses a rotary-percussive drill and a hollow coring bit at the end of its 7-foot-long (2-meter-long) robotic arm to extract samples slightly thicker than a pencil. (Image Credit: NASA)

Data received late Sept. 1 from NASA’s Perseverance rover indicate the team has achieved its goal of successfully coring a Mars rock. This downlinked image shows an intact sample present in the tube after coring. (Image Credit: NASA)

The Perseverance rover is just the first part of a long-term sample return mission. The rover will collect the rock samples, store them in tubes, and eventually deposit them on the surface of Mars. In a few years' time, scientists will send another craft to Mars, which will pick up these samples and return them to Earth. (Image Credit: NASA)