March: Perseverance passed its second sample collection attempt

The second time is the right one! Engineers from NASA and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have announced September 2nd than the rover Perseverance had succeeded in his second attempt to collect Martian rocks. The mission took place on 1^is September, at its 180^e sol (a day on Mars is called sol and is equivalent to 24:40 in Earth time), almost seven months after arrival of the rover on the Red planet. The operation took place in the region of South Séítah, east of the Jezero crater. On August 5, Perseverance tried to drill a first rock in the region of Cratered Floor Fractured Rough, without success.

Good pick for Perseverance

Photos taken by the Mastcam-Z suggest that the sample taken is indeed stored in the hermetic box named Adaptative Catching Assembly (HERE). You Sampling and Catching System, implanted at the end of the two-meter long robotic arm, drilled a targeted rock and extracted a piece of it ” barely thicker than a pencil ”, according to JPL researchers. The arm then folded back to place the rocks in a tube joining the “belly” of Perseverance, where the ACA is located.

The American space agency, deploring the low brightness photos dated 1^is September, said the Mastcam would be called upon to take a new set of photos proving the rocks are safe in the ACA. These new images, taken on September 3, were received on Earth the next day. The researchers therefore waited for this date before claiming victory: during the first drilling, the sample had disappeared without leaving a trace, supposedly destroyed under the effect of friction during the maneuver.

The rocks will be protected by the rover until the arrival of missions supposed to bring them back to Earth, by 2030. The success of the mission being confirmed, the rover therefore resumes its route to a new area of ​​the Jezero crater, after having already covered 2.17 kilometers. Other drilling and sampling operations are planned by NASA in the coming months.