Mars rover prepares to drop off rock, soil samples

NASA says the Perseverance rover will build its first depot of rock and soil samples on another planet. The cache site will be built in an area on Mar's surface nicknamed "three forks in Jezero crater."

NASA will store sample tubes containing a collection of chalk-size cores of rocks and sediment from the surface.

Perseverance is collecting rocks and soil as part of its investigation of an ancient lake that existed billions of years ago on Mars. Scientists want to know if the materials collected contain evidence of whether life ever existed on Mars.