From NASA Endurance Mars The Rover team announced on Thursday that it has succeeded in getting the core to its first Mars. stein.
A September 1 photo of the long, dusty and strangely shaped rock on Mars in a statement from the agency showed the circular borehole.
NASA said that the first images downloaded after the events showed an intact sample present in the sample tube after extraction.
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“However, several photos were taken after the arm completed the sample collection was not decisive due to sunlight terms ” He saidand noted that the rover would get additional images of the test tube with better lighting before further processing.
“Although the endurance mission team is convinced that the sample is in the tube, images in optimal light conditions will confirm its presence,” NASA wrote.
“The project got its first cornerstone under its belt, and it’s a fantastic achievement,” said Jennifer Trosper, project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “The team decided on a location, and selected and retrieved the core from a viable and scientifically valuable stone. We did what we came here to do. We will work on this small problem with the lighting conditions in the pictures and continue to be encouraged that there is a sample in this tube .. ”
Using a rotating hammer drill and a hollow drill bit, which holds the test tube, at the end of it robotic arm To extract the samples, the endurance maneuvered the core, drill bit and open end of the test tube to be imaged by his Mastcam-Z instrument.
The first images showed the end of a core rock inside the test tube before “Percy” began a procedure called “percussion to swallow.”
The step vibrates the drill bit and the pipe five times, which can help a sample to slide further into the pipe and slide off the edge of the waste pipe.
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After “percussion to swallow”, Perseverance took his second set of Mastcam-Z images, where the lighting was poor and “the inner parts of the test tube are not visible”.
NASA said that Friday’s photos will be taken when the sun is in a more favorable position, and that the photos will also be taken after sunset to “reduce the point’s light sources that can saturate an image.”
Photos are set to be returned to Land Saturday morning.
If the new images are still insecure, the team still has several steps it can take, including using the volume sample of the mobile caching and sampling system to confirm that the sample is in the tube.
Especially an earlier attempt to sample rock from Mars in early August went wrong when the team realized that the rover was unable to catch the crumbling rock in the pipe.
NASA then decided to move to the southern region of Séítah from the Jezero crater on the red planet.
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Endurance landed on March 18 February and began its scientific phase, and the search for signs of old microbial life – 1. june.
In the future, the stone and regolith samples collected by the rover and stash will be returned in joint assignments with the rover. ESA (European Space Agency).
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