The Green Gardens core is particularly exciting for our science team because it contains serpentine minerals, which may have formed billions of years ago when water interacted with rocks before the Jezero crater impact. On Earth, serpentine-rich environments can support microbial communities, making this sample particularly important to understanding ancient Mars’ potential for life.

The science team was torn with competing priorities: sealing up Green Gardens as quickly as possible vs. continuing to our next important science stop, “Broom Point.” Several options were considered: (1) stay put and focus on sealing, (2) start driving and keep trying to seal Green Gardens on the road, or (3) dump the Green Gardens sample from the tube and try extracting another core at Tablelands (this was the most drastic option).

The science team went with (2), a dual-track strategy that would allow us to keep mission momentum while giving our engineers time to develop new approaches to the sealing challenge.

The risk was that option (2) would keep the Green Gardens sample open for potentially a long time — depending on how obstinate the sample sealing would be — leaving the rock core exposed to the harsh conditions of Mars’ surface.