This image taken by one the hazard
cameras aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover on Aug. 6, 2021, shows the hole
drilled in what the rover science team calls a “paver rock” in preparation for
the mission’s first attempt to collect a sample from Mars. (Image credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech) |
The rover crew is investigating what happened.
The initial sample-snagging attempt by the Perseverance
rover did not go as planned.
Perseverance, a car-sized spacecraft that landed inside
Mars' Jezero Crater in February, had two main missions: to look for indications
of past Martian life and to collect and archive materials for eventual return
to Earth.
On Friday (Aug. 6), the NASA rover bored its first
sample-collecting hole, marking a significant milestone in the $2.7 billion
mission. However, NASA officials revealed on Friday afternoon that data from
Perseverance indicates that no Mars rock or dirt made it into the sampling
tube.
While this isn't the "hole in one" we hoped for,
breaking new ground always carries risk, according to Thomas Zurbuchen,
assistant administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
I'm certain we've assembled the proper team to tackle this,
and we'll keep working until we find a solution that ensures future success,
said Zurbuchen.
The rover carries 43 sample tubes, so this wasn't a
make-or-break situation for Perseverance. Perseverance will fill at least 20 of
them with material taken from holes drilled into Martian rock with the
percussive drill at the end of its 7-foot-long (2.1-meter) robotic arm,
according to the mission plan.
According to NASA officials, data from Perseverance showed
that the drill, which includes a hollow coring bit, performed as expected, and
that sample tube processing appeared to be normal.
Perseverance surface mission manager Jessica Samuels of
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California remarked in the
same statement that the sampling process is autonomous from start to finish.
After inserting a probe into the collection tube, one of the next procedures is
to determine the sample volume. The probe encountered no resistance, which
would be expected if there was a sample inside the tube.
The Perseverance team reported via the rover's officialTwitter account that this result — a satisfactorily bored hole but an empty
tube — was never seen during testing of the sample system on Earth.
The empty tube is more likely a result of the rock target
not reacting as predicted during coring, rather than a hardware issue with the
Sampling and Caching System, according to the first assumption. Jennifer Trosper,
also of JPL, is the project manager for the Perseverance mission. Over the
following few days, the team will devote more time to reviewing the data we
already have and gathering further diagnostic data to help us figure out why
the tube is empty.
Perseverance will take detailed photographs of the borehole
using the WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and Engineering)
camera at the end of its arm as part of the supplementary data NASA officials
said.
Unexpected rock or dirt qualities have already thrown barriers
in the way of Mars robots. Curiosity, Perseverance's older relative, has
drilled through rocks that have proven to be substantially harder or more
brittle than the mission team had anticipated. And the digging heat probe on
NASA's InSight Mars lander failed to delve nearly as far as it was supposed to,
possibly because to strangely powdery but cohesive dirt.
I've been on every Mars rover expedition since the
beginning, and this planet never ceases to teach us new things Trosper
remarked. One thing I've found is, it's not unusual to have complications
during complex, first-time activities.
Originally Published By Live Science.
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