JAKARTA – NASA’s rover, Perseverance, has crashed while collecting rock samples from Mars, with some pebble-sized debris blocking the system.
At first all went well, on December 29, Perseverance drilled a rock dubbed Issole and took a sample of it.
“However, during the transfer of the bit containing the sample into the bit carousel rover (which stores the bits and passes the tube to the tube processing hardware inside the rover), our sensor shows an anomaly,” said Chief Engineer, Louise Jandura for sampling.
After becoming aware of any unusual problems during the sample storage process, rover then stop the sampling activity.
As the team revealed rover in the official Twitter account @NASAPerseverance, the result is debris preventing the robotic arm from properly handing over the tube containing the sample for sealing and storage.
I recently captured my sixth rock core and have encountered a new challenge. Seems some pebble-sized debris is obstructing my robotic arm from handing off the tube for sealing/storage. More images and data to come. #SamplingMars takes perseverance.
Blog: https://t.co/flabIslR21 pic.twitter.com/sfaxuu0HNG
– NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) January 8, 2022
quote Engadget, Monday, January 10, this storage of rock samples from Mars is very important for NASA, because it will eventually return the samples to Earth, then conduct research to see how Mars was in the past.
This is not the end of sample collection. Jandura said the carousel was designed to walk with debris. However, this is the first time teams have had to clear debris, and Jandura said operators would need time to remove the gravel in a controlled and orderly manner.
This isn’t the first time Perseverance has run into trouble. The robot failed to collect samples during its first attempt, while the Ingenuity helicopter suffered a processing error during its sixth flight.
However, this is a challenge in missions on Mars. When Mars is so far from Earth, the fix isn’t always easy or sure.
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