![]() ![]() ![]() It will then "drive over to the delta and spend about another year on the delta gathering samples there," explained Welch. What's on deck for Year Two?Īt its one-year anniversary, Perseverance is now embarking on its return trip to its landing site. We took our time and it was almost a month by the time we went through the process," said Welch. Everybody's like, Well, okay, now we got to get rid of them. "It was a very careful process that we went through when we saw the pebbles there. The science team eventually found rocks here on Earth that produced the same results when drilled into allowing them to move on to better candidate rocks to drill into on Mars.Īnd through a series of careful shakes, rattles, and a little bit of creative driving they were able to dislodge the pesky stuck pebbles. None of the experiments that the team conducted here on Earth prior to sending Perseverance on its interplanetary adventure predicted that a sample could mysteriously disappear or leave pebbles behind to be stuck in the collection chamber. As the drill collected the sample, the rock essentially turned to dust leaving the sample chamber empty. “It’s the great thing of interacting with the natural terrain of a surface of another planet, right? It's always going to surprise you,” said Welch. ![]() It turns out the first rock was too brittle. "That first sample, it was a head-scratcher," said Welch. The first sample of rock that Perseverance's science team attempted to collect mysteriously vanished. Troubleshooting a few unexpected events along the way - from disappearing core samples to inconveniently stuck pebbles - ate up some of the precious mission timeline and is part of the reason why Perseverance is now racing to complete its sample collection mission within the two year mission window. That would sort of complete the suite of samples we wanted to get from the crater floor." A year of perseverance and ingenuity And we're hoping by the end of the month to get another two samples. Welch explains that at the end of its first year of sample collecting Perseverance now has "six core samples on board. The science team "allocated the first year to sort of drive around and get samples on the crater floor," said Welch. It was a "unique opportunity to really study the material that makes up the crater floor," he continued. More: Driving on Mars or nails on a chalkboard? 'Very noisy' audio of rover traversing planet released More: After dramatic approach, NASA's Perseverance rover lands safely on Mars That plan has gone successfully, for the most part. The location offered opportunities to search for a different type of sample than would be found at the delta location. The rover was about three miles away from where the Perseverance science team expects to find the most substantial evidence of ancient microbial life, a river delta that has the potential of being loaded with evidence of Mar's wet past. "Perseverance is very much on a mission to gather a certain number of samples in a certain amount of time. And then, be able to put those down so hopefully, the future Mars Sample Return mission can pick them up,” said Rick Welch, Perseverance Deputy Project Manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “And so, that does put the time pressure on us to continue to make progress,” he continued.Īlthough successful, Perseverance's landing one year ago put it in a region of Mar's Jezero Crater that was safer for the rover - the flat floor of the crater, a once suspected lakebed - but further away from the area scientists are most interested in exploring. Within its planned mission duration of one Martian year, or about two Earth years, the Perseverance rover is tasked with collecting samples of the Martian surface that will eventually be returned to Earth to search for evidence of ancient microbial life that might have once existed on the now dry and dusty planet. Halfway through its journey, the robotic roaming science lab is racing against the clock to collect possible evidence of ancient life on the red planet. On Friday, NASA celebrates one year of successful operation of its most technically advanced Martian explorer, the Perseverance rover - and its Ingenuity helicopter companion. Watch Video: Perseverance rover marks first anniversary on Mars ![]()
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