Perseverance will be critical in a future mission that involves returning samples from Mars to Earth. Perseverance must drill these samples and encapsulate them in tiny titanium tubes placed on the Martian surface before that can happen. A separate mission will recover the canisters and return them to Earth in the future.
Perseverance is NASA's younger sister of the Curiosity rover, which celebrated its 9th birthday on Mars. Both rovers have accomplished a great deal in exploring the planet and providing humans with the first impression of the red planet.
NASA Perseverance to Drill and Collect Rock Samples on 2nd Attempt
The Perseverance rover, which collects rock samples for NASA's scientific purposes, would make a second effort to dig a hole into Mars, The Verge said. Perseverance's first rock drilling event took place on August 19, Science Times reported. However, it was a failure since the boulder mysteriously disappeared, and NASA could not find anything for their research.
Perseverance observed that the first effort went according to plan until they discovered that no samples had been placed in the tube where they were meant to go. The crew noticed that the rock they were attempting to encase had crumbled away after inspecting.
The crew has collected over 100 rock samples on Mars so far. But NASA has yet to come across a form of rock that breaks into enormous fragments that are too large to go through its tubes.
NASA Perseverance Drill: How Does it Work
The drill used by NASA's Perseverance rover is known as the "Rotary Percussive Core Drill." It was designed mainly for Mars by Honeybee Robotics. The drill is intended to break up the sample that the team attempts to get, but its primary goal is to gather these samples for storage and investigation.
Perseverance would have little trouble finding its next rock to core, drill, and sample, especially as it travels through the "South Setah," which is rich in minerals. The team is certain that it will discover a "high science-value" rock to replace the original rock that has fallen away.
Mars Rock Samples
NASA is looking for a rock that will withstand the drilling procedure and won't dissolve quickly under the force of Perseverance's equipment. This is a significant step for NASA, especially since it wants to learn more about Mars.
Perseverance's initial effort failed, and while this is unfortunate for the rover, the issue is not with it but with the sample it is attempting to obtain.
With that in mind, NASA's Perseverance team will search for a new paver stone to drill, one that will perhaps work better with the rover's built-in drilling and sample equipment. NASA has already identified Citadelle as a "very promising location" that might prove to be a better place for drilling core samples.
Although a new particular drilling site has yet to be chosen, NASA said per Slash Gear that it expects to have a new sample destination in the coming days. If all goes according to plan, the next sample core drilling attempt will occur in the next 10 days.
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