Mars 2020 Perseverance SCS SFM HW installation

Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Sample Caching System Sterile Flight Model hardware was installed on the Mars Perseverance rover on May 21, 2020. The system includes 39 sample tubes. Each tube is sheathed in a gold-colored cylindrical enclosure to protect it from contamination. Perseverance rover will carry 43 sample tubes in total to Mars' Jezero Crater. The Mars Perseverance rover is scheduled to launch in mid-July atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 541 rocket from Pad 41 at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The rover is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the Red Planet. The rover will search for habitable conditions in the ancient past and signs of past microbial life on Mars. The Launch Services Program at Kennedy is responsible for launch management.