NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover failed to collect rock samples of Martian soil in its first attempt, but it will soon make another attempt. The rover made its first sampling on August 6, and everything went as planned. However, when the rover went to measure the rock in its sample tube, it found nothing.
The rover team investigated the reason why Perseverance failed to collect and found the type of rock was the problem. Now, further investigation has confirmed that the rock was too powdery to produce a neat core that could be sealed.
Oldest rocks in the crater
“Our team has been working hard over the last 12 days to both ensure we have adequately assessed the data from the first coring attempt and also developed a solid plan forward,” wrote Jennifer Trosper, Project Manager at NASA’s JPL. “After further review of the engineering and imaging data, our final conclusion is the same as our initial assessment: The rock simply wasn’t our kind of rock.”
In another post, project scientist Kenneth Farley explained more about the Roubion area where the team tried to grab the first sample from. These rocks are important as this area is believed to feature some of the oldest rocks in the crater, which will allow scientists to determine the ancient life of the planet.
Another attempt scheduled
The team will try to extract another sample and they are confident that another target will be more successful. They will move Perseverance to the Citadelle region, which is 150 meters away from the place where they’ll find boulders that will be collected in another sampling attempt.
According to Farley, the second attempt could happen within the coming weeks: “I expect we’ll pick out a target on one of these boulders and begin the planning for our next coring activity next week, with our next sampling attempt around the end of the month,” he wrote.
The Martian surface has created issues in the past as well. The Phoenix Lander also ran into trouble while collecting “sticky” soil in 2008. Moreover, Curiosity and InSight have also had trouble drilling into the surface of the planet.
