NASA's Mars Perseverance Rover has collected a sample to replace the material that became trapped in its throat.
Perseverance bore into a rock named Issole on Dec. 29, 2021, taking its sixth cored sample since landing at the Red Planet's Jezero Crater last February.
However, the car-sized rover could not close the titanium tube as anticipated, a fault that the mission team quickly attributed to a few niggling stones blocking Perseverance's sample-handling system.
Perseverance shook the stones loose last week after dumping the rock core out mid-January. These actions paved the way for the following round of sample collection, which the six-wheeled robot just completed at Issole.
This Sept. 1 image from NASA’s Perseverance rover shows a sample tube with its cored-rock contents inside. The bronze-colored outer-ring is the coring bit. The lighter-colored inner-ring is the open end of the tube, and inside is a rock core sample slightly thicker than a pencil. In a later image, the rock sample was not clearly evident inside the tube.
Perseverance Rover Gets A Surprising Rock For Its 6th Sample
The NASA Perseverance rover has struck 'issole' once more on its quest to obtain a sample of Mars, discovering the rock covered with 'drill and abrasion markings' that resemble a surprised face.
"This rock almost looked surprised that I was coming back! Thankfully, I [collected] another sample here to replace the one I discarded earlier. This may be one of the oldest rocks I sample, so it could help us understand the history of this place. #SamplingMars," mission team members wrote Monday via Perseverance's official Twitter account.
This rock almost looked surprised that I was coming back! Thankfully, I was able to collect another sample here to replace the one I discarded earlier. This may be one of the oldest rocks I sample, so it could help us understand the history of this place. #SamplingMars pic.twitter.com/I1kqdNSchR
— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) January 31, 2022
NASA had to shake out the stones first using the 'un-choking method,' which involves aiming a drill carrying a clogged test tube towards the ground and whirling it at high speed.
In a separate tweet, Perseverance Rover said it emptied its most recent partial sample. Thankfully, the robot could reuse this tube for a different rock sample.
In order to keep #SamplingMars, I’ve emptied my latest partial sample. Watch closely to see one piece of cored rock drop to the surface in this movie. Thankfully, I can reuse this tube for another sample from the same rock.
— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) January 21, 2022
Latest blog: https://t.co/kHxq9S2GXx pic.twitter.com/kwSzBlFVBt
The pebbles fell out of the tube and landed on the surface of Mars, preserving the tube for use in this new sampling mission.
A couple of stones had clung to the rock and had to be removed before NASA could obtain another sample.
When confronted with a problem, Perseverance Rover said in another tweet that taking a step back and shrugging things off is sometimes advisable.
The rover added that it reversed up onto some adjacent rocks and made a twist with one foot to become slanted. According to the robot, it must have shaken free the other two stones in its sample apparatus somewhere along the road.
When you run into a challenge, sometimes it’s best to step back and shake it off.
I reversed up onto some nearby rocks to get tilted, and did a twist with one foot. Somewhere along the way I’ve shaken loose the other two pebbles in my sampling system. Back to #SamplingMars soon! pic.twitter.com/gAs6E0tGcf— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) January 25, 2022
ALSO READ: NASA Perseverance Rover Successful at Declogging Rock Pieces Out of Sampling Tubes [Watch]
NASA returned the robotic arm with the drill to the rock after cleaning the area.
The 'issole' rock, covered in many pockmarks and drill holes and resembled a shocked face, surprised the scientists.
Debris Removal An 'Accomplishment' For Perseverance Rover
The agency's removal of the debris was a tremendous accomplishment since they used a variety of unproven procedures that had only been devised conceptually.
In a NASA blog post, Rover team member Eleni Ravanis said that Perseverance has already begun performing long-distance observations of the delta to prepare for those operations.
But, as Ravanis, a Perseverance student collaborator at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, said, the rover won't start traveling there just yet.
It will initially investigate Rimplas, a neighboring location, and may drill a few cores in the region, including from Roubion, the first Red Planet rock sampled by Perseverance.
That attempt failed in August 2021 when the rover dug through the rock and abruptly collapsed to fragments.
Daily Mail said one of the two primary goals of the NASA rover, which landed on Mars in February 2021, is to collect rock samples from the planet's surface.
Perseverance is roaming around the Jezero Crater, not far from the Martian equator, searching for chemical signals left by long-dead microbial life.
A future NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) cooperative mission will collect and return these samples, and each will be encased in a titanium tube.
RELATED ARTICLE: NASA Executed Plan of Cleaning Perseverance Rover Weeks After Martian Pebbles Got Stuck While Collecting Samples
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