It can be hard enough to fix instruments on Earth. Now NASA engineers are trying to fix technical problems on a robot on another planet.
The reason is that images and data have shown that NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance is having problems with a dust cover on the vital SHERLOC instrument, which helps the robot search for organic compounds. That could make some of the rover’s science missions more difficult.
Perseverance’s main mission is to evaluate whether Mars was previously habitable and search for signs of ancient life, explore the geology, and collect rock and soil samples that can be returned to Earth by future NASA missions.
SHERLOC, which is mounted on the rover’s robotic arm, uses a spectrometer, cameras and a laser to help search for signs of past microbial life. It is about searching for organic minerals or compounds that have changed in water-rich environments.
Up until last December, the instrument has collected a wealth of data and created 261 hyperspectral maps. Now the instrument can no longer use its laser as intended nor collect spectroscopy data. However, the instrument’s color camera, WATSON, can still be used to take close-up images of rock grains and surface structures.
Engineers are intensively searching for the cause of the problem with the dust covers and trying to find possible solutions. But fortunately SHERLOC is only one of seven instruments on board Perseverance, so the work is not standing still in the meantime.
The suite of instruments on board Perseverance has been designed so that the rover can continue to achieve science goals even if a single instrument malfunctions. The instruments overlap and, for example, spectroscopy is also performed by two other instruments, PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry) and Supercam.
Perseverance has been on Mars for 1000 Martian days, which is 300 Martian days longer than the original main mission. The Mars robot will continue its scientific work in the future, despite the problems with SHERLOC.
However, no decisive evidence for life on Mars is expected to be the result of the Mars rover’s mission, but it is hoped to produce strong indications of whether there were conditions for life at all.
The samples that are now taken on Mars can be used to provide answers as to whether there was life on Mars. But they must then first be brought to Earth in order to be examined in a lab environment.
The mission that will retrieve the samples and bring them to Earth is called Mars Sample Return (MRS), and is carried out in collaboration between NASA and ESA. Sometime in the early or mid-2030s, samples are expected to arrive on Earth. Hopefully we can then get an answer to the eternal question of whether there is or has been life on Mars.
