Aug 16, 2021 11:58:00

NASA's Mars rover 'Perseverance' failed to collect rock samples, why?

NASA's unmanned spacecraft '

Perseverance ' mined the first rock sample on August 6, 2021, even though all instruments had 'successfully completed' data. Nevertheless, it became clear that he had made the strange mistake of 'empty sample container'. The cause of this failure is explained by Louise Jandura, Chief Engineer for Rock Sampling and Storage.

Assessing Perseverance's First Sample Attempt --NASA Mars
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/status/320/assessing-perseverances-first-sample-attempt/

Why Perseverance's first Mars drilling test came up empty | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/08/why-perseverances-first-mars-drilling-test-came-up-empty/

NASA's Mars spacecraft parser via lance Mars helicopter ' Ingenuity ' and the oxygen generation system ' MOXIE ', sample collection and storage system, ' Sample Caching System equipped with a' activities in order to find traces of life on Mars doing. You can find out more about Perseverance features and missions in the following articles:

Summary of functions and missions of NASA's 'Perseverance' spacecraft whose landing on Mars has entered the countdown --GIGAZINE

Parser via lance in the landing of the Mars on February 19, 2021

success , and April 19 in powered flight's first extraterrestrial planet by Ingenuity to success . Furthermore, on April 21, we succeeded in producing oxygen by MOXIE.

And on August 6th, the first sampling by Perseverance was carried out. Similarly, NASA's Mars probe ' Curiosity ' has also succeeded in sampling Mars, but the sample collected at this time was obtained by crushing the rocks of Mars. On the other hand, Perseverance aimed to collect rock samples without crushing them by digging rocks like hollowing out the core of an apple with the newly developed rock sample mining drill 'Corer'.

Below is a photo of the mining site after rock mining. There are traces of mining in the red frame. At the same time as this photo, the data that 'we succeeded in digging to a depth of 7 cm' arrived on the earth.

The morning after the above picture arrived on Earth, data was sent to Earth stating that the container containing the sample was normally sealed and that it was successfully stored in the hangar. However, the volume measurement data and photographs of the sample sent after that showed that 'the container that should contain the sample is empty'. 'It took me a few minutes to accept this result, but the exploration team quickly switched to exploration mode. That's our job, the basis of science and engineering,' said Jandura. I'm talking.

The exploration team spent two days conducting a detailed analysis of the data. As a result of checking the photographs and motion records of the area where the perseverance moved, the possibility that Corer malfunctioned and the sample fell on the surface of Mars was ruled out. The exploration team, who examined a series of possibilities, speculates from the photographs of the rock mined by Corer that 'the rock was not sturdy and was crushed by Corer.'

'The sample collection system worked as ordered, but this time the rocks didn't help, which is the essence of the expedition that no amount of preparation guarantees results,' said Jandura. It reminds me. '' I failed to collect the sample this time, but I showed that the sample collection system operates completely autonomously on Mars, 'he said.

Perseverance sampling will continue, with a second sampling scheduled for early September.