It is worth noting that these are samples of the space suit that astronauts are to be equipped with when it is possible to send them to the Red Planet.
The materials will be tested in an environment of powerful radiation waiting for those who are ready to set foot on Mars.
It cannot be denied that maintaining the functioning of devices in space is a big challenge, let alone keeping people sent to conquer the Moon or Mars alive.
All of this prompted NASA engineers and its partners to develop space suits called Extravehicular Mobility Units, where the inhabitants of the International Space Station perform all activities outside the ISS, protected from micrometeoroids, cosmic rays, temperature changes and supported by all helpful systems - saying
in short, their suits are like miniature human-shaped spaceships.
Except that Mars has an atmosphere, and astronauts will perform activities that require even walking on its surface, completely new suits are needed.
As such, NASA has already started to create them, and it's hard to imagine a better test for the materials than actually sending them to Mars, so the appropriate samples will go there with the Perseverance rover. Therefore, when the rover lands on the surface of Mars in about 7 months' time
together with it, 5 material samples will be placed there, which are to be used in the new generation EMU.
These will be placed on its surface, so as it travels, they will be exposed to dust, solar and cosmic radiation - all of them can be seen in the above graphic, along with their planned placement on the suit.
We already know two of them well, because it is Ortho, combining Kevlar, Gore-Tex and flame-resistant Nomex, which is used in current suits, and Vectran, used in the palm area, protecting against lacerations, but they were not previously exposed to the effects of
similar to the Martian ones.
The data collected by the rover will then be compared with those obtained in Earth laboratories, because there is no joke in this matter - safe suits for astronauts are a priority that NASA must deal with if it actually wants to send people to Mars.