NASA says the Mars Perseverance rover has collected its first sample

After initially failing to capture a rock sample, NASA has confirmed that Perseverance succeeded in its second attempt. The space agency has verified that a pencil-width core of rust-colored rock is safely trapped in the rover's sample tube tube, ready to be processed and sent back to Earth, CNET has reported. After NASA initially thought it had nabbed the first sample last month, a subsequent check showed the sample tube empty. That created something of a mystery, with scientists wondering wher...