NASA explains why persistence failed in its first attempt to collect a rock sample on Mars

Posted:

13 before 2021 11:26 GMT

The agency plans to send it to another region to try to collect fragments from the surface of the Red Planet.

On August 7, NASA’s Perseverance spacecraft fail On his first attempt to extract a rock sample from Mars and seal it in a collection tube. At the time, Jennifer Trosper, rover project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, noted that the material may not have been obtained because the rocks did not react as expected during the extraction process.

After analyzing rover data and images over several days, the Perseverance team noticed that the machine’s engineering telemetry No unusual action was detected During grinding and boring activities compared to the data from successful tests conducted on the ground, mentioned This Wednesday, Louise Gandora, chief engineer of the sampling system, on the NASA Blog. At the same time, he announced that the photos of the place where Perseverance works do not reveal There are no essential or essential parts Salim.

Based on depth measurements, NASA scientists state that drilling activity in this rock resulted in the appearance of dust or small fragments that were not retained due to its size. “It seems that The rock wasn’t strong enough Jindoura said.

Currently the research team is planning send perseverance to a different placeThe sediments of the ancient lake are called ‘setah’, as the rocks should be stronger. The “hardware” is working properly, but the rock didn’t help us this time. [Esta situación] It reminds me again of the nature of exploration. “A certain outcome can never be guaranteed, no matter how prepared you are,” the engineer said.