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NASA has spent nine years and about $ 2 billion on its quest to drill and store Martian rock samples. The Perseverance rover was set to arrive there for the first time on Friday.
The rover picked up a rock in an ancient lake of Mars bed that may have contained alien life and attempted to drill. But then something strange happened: the sample seemed to have disappeared without a trace.
There is a finger-sized hole in the rock from which the sample should have come out, but there is nothing in the rover’s sample collection tube. And the rock core isn’t lying around anywhere near the hole. It just isn’t there.
“While this is not the ‘hole in one’ we were hoping for, there is always risk to innovate,” NASA Associate Administrator Thomas Zurbuchen said in a press release. “I have no doubts that we have the right team to work on this, and we will push for a solution to ensure future success.”
To figure out what happened, NASA asks Perseverance to take close-up photos of the borehole it made. Mission controllers will then try to schedule another sampling attempt.
“The initial thought is that the empty tube is more likely the result of the rock target not reacting as we expected during coring, and less likely a hardware issue with the sampling and caching system. “said Jennifer Trosper, Project Manager for Perseverance. in a report. “Over the next few days, the team will be spending more time analyzing the data we have and acquiring additional diagnostic data to help understand the root cause of the empty tube.”
The main objective of Perseverance on Mars is to explore an area called Jezero Crater and collect rock samples; the tube that came out empty is one of the 43 that the rover is transporting for this purpose. NASA’s long-term plan is to send another mission to Mars in about a decade to collect the samples Perseverance is collecting and bring them back to Earth. Then future scientists will be able to determine whether microbial life may have lived in the lake that once filled the basin.
In other words, a significant amount of planning and money depends on Perseverance’s ability to successfully drill these samples.
Mars keeps NASA on its toes
In its attempt to take its first sample, Perseverance first used an abrasion tool to remove dust and surface coatings from the rock. Then the rover extended its 7-foot-long arm, which had a sample collection tool at the end. This tool uses a hammer drill to push a hollow core drill bit into the rock.
The whole process is autonomous. Mission controllers simply send a “go” command to Perseverance.
The data the rover has sent back to Earth from its attempt so far indicates that it has performed the necessary steps exactly as planned. Yet for some reason the tube is empty.
The rock that Perseverance was trying to sample is typical of the region it passed through. The floor of the Jezero crater is covered with what NASA calls “cobblestones”. These porous rocks could be sedimentary (that is, formed by the activity of rivers and lakes) or volcanic. Taking a sample would help scientists determine what type of rocks line the crater floor, improving their understanding of the history of the area.
Other Martian missions also encountered unexpected difficulties due to rock and soil. NASA recently had to abandon the “mole” of its InSight lander, a probing tool supposed to sink into the Martian crust and measure its temperature. The mole found itself bouncing off a firm ground foundation called “duracrust”.
“I’ve been on every rover mission to Mars since the start, and this planet is always teaching us what we don’t know about it,” Trosper said. “One thing I have found is that it is not uncommon to have complications with complex activities for the first time.”
Read the original article on Business Insider
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