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NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover prepares to collect its very first sample.
The agency’s Southern California-based Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said the rover was looking for a scientifically interesting rock target in the “Cratered Floor Fractured Rough” of Jezero Crater.
The “Cratered Floor Fractured Rough” is one of the deepest and potentially oldest accessible geological units in the crater.
NASA PERSEVERANCE MARS ROVER BEGINS LOOKING FOR SIGNS OF PAST LIFE
Sampling is expected to take place within the next two weeks as the team searches for clues regarding the existence of ancient microbial life.
“When Neil Armstrong took the first sample of the sea of tranquility 52 years ago, he began a process that would rewrite what humanity knew about the moon, ”Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA headquarters, said in the statement. “I expect the first Perseverance sample from Jezero Crater, and those coming after, will do the same for Mars. We are on the threshold of a new era of planetary science and discovery. “
The process begins with the rover’s 7-foot-long robotic arm.
The arm will set up the necessary tools at hand, then perform an imaging study so that scientists on Earth determine the exact location of the target for the first sample in addition to a second site in the same area for the “science of proximity”.
Then, five of Perseverance’s scientific instruments will work together to “allow an unprecedented analysis of geological materials on the site”.
The SuperCam and the Mastcam-Z will participate with the rover SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals), PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry) and the WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering) camera to provide mineral and chemical analysis of the target, capture high resolution images, collect data and spectroscopically measure the plume resulting from the SuperCam laser.
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After the pre-coring, members of JPL working on Perseverance will limit its tasks to a soil, or a Martian day.
The rest will allow the rover to fully recharge its battery.
On the day of sampling, the sampling arm in the Adaptive caching assembly will get a sample tube, heat it up and insert it into a core drill bit before the drill bit carousel brings the tube and bit to a rotary hammer drill on Perseverance’s robotic arm.
The arm will then pierce the intact geological “twin” of the rock and fill the tube with a core a few inches in length.
Finally, the robotic arm will move the combination of bits and tubes through the bit carousel and adaptive caching assembly where the sample will be photographed, measured in volume, sealed and stored.
Perseverance will take about 11 days to complete its first sample, according to the agency.
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Perseverance landed on Mars on February 18 and began its scientific phase on June 1.
In the future, the rock and regolith samples that the rover collects and hides will be returned as part of joint missions with the ESA (European Space Agency).
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