Mars: How NASA’s Perseverance Rover collected a rock sample

ITAHARI: SEPT. 6 – NASA’s Perseverance Rover has confirmed that it has collected rock samples from Mars in a second attempt.

The robot made the hole by drilling a hole in a thick rock called a “rosette”. Evidence has been found in the photographs that the sample was safely removed from the inner part of the stone.

In the first attempt made last month, the sample sought to be collected was dusted. This will be the first time that rocks have been collected to bring Earth from an extraterrestrial planet.

The rover is tasked with collecting more than two dozen samples within the next year. Towards the end of this decade, a joint effort by the United States and Europe is planned to bring these samples to Earth for research.

NASA waited for more images to be taken on Mars to announce that the rock-drilling exercise was indeed a success.

“To be more precise, we need some more pictures with better lighting,” Adam Steltzner, Rover’s chief engineer, tweeted a few days ago.

NASA’s Perseverance Robot landed on Mars’ Jezero Crater last February. Located 20 degrees north of the equator of Mars, the crater is deep and 45 kilometres wide.

It is believed that there was a huge lake billion of years ago. So if life existed on Mars, scientists speculate that traces of ancient microorganisms could be found in Jezero’s Thegar.

The robot flew more than two kilometres from the landing site and reached a deal called “Citdale”. The sample was collected by making a hole in the rock at the same place.

The robot also has a storage system. A human finger-sized piece dug out of a hole in the rock will be placed in a titanium tube.

The rover will take a picture of the tube-shaped vessel before placing the sample and sealing it. Last August, scientists found that the first sample collected at this stage was not in a tube. While digging the hole, the rock had become dusty and fell to the ground.

The NASA team is excited to see the images sent to Earth last Thursday because they showed signs inside the mouth of a container being used to store the collected specimens.

Perseverance has not been overshadowed by its small helicopter “Ingenuity”. Although initially sent to demonstrate the technology, the drone is now used regularly to inspect the surface of Mars before the rover.

So far, Ingenuity has flown 12 times.

-BBC