{"id":21026,"date":"2021-07-25T12:50:01","date_gmt":"2021-07-25T07:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/?p=21026"},"modified":"2021-07-25T13:01:08","modified_gmt":"2021-07-25T07:16:08","slug":"nasa-perseverance-mars-rover-to-acquire-first-sample","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/nasa-perseverance-mars-rover-to-acquire-first-sample\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA Perseverance Mars Rover to Acquire First Sample"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NASA is making final preparations for its Perseverance Mars rover to collect its first-ever sample of Martian rock, which future planned missions will transport to Earth. The six-wheeled geologist is searching for a scientifically interesting target in a part of Jezero Crater<\/a> called the \u201cCratered Floor Fractured Rough<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This important mission milestone is expected to begin within the next two weeks. Perseverance landed in Jezero Crater Feb. 18, and NASA kicked off the rover mission\u2019s science phase June 1, exploring a 1.5-square-mile (4-square-kilometer) patch of crater floor that may contain Jezero\u2019s deepest and most ancient layers of exposed bedrock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen Neil Armstrong took the first sample from the Sea of Tranquility<\/a> 52 years ago, he began a process that would rewrite what humanity knew about the Moon,\u201d said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters. \u201cI have every expectation that Perseverance\u2019s first sample from Jezero Crater, and those that come after, will do the same for Mars. We are on the threshold of a new era of planetary science and discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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NASA<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It took Armstrong 3 minutes and 35 seconds to collect that first Moon sample. Perseverance will require about 11 days to complete its first sampling, as it must receive its instructions from hundreds of millions of miles away while relying on the most complex and capable, as well as the cleanest, mechanism ever to be sent into space \u2013 the Sampling and Caching System.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sampling sequence begins with the rover placing everything necessary for sampling within reach of its 7-foot (2-meter) long robotic arm<\/a>. It will then perform an imagery survey, so NASA\u2019s science team can determine the exact location for taking the first sample, and a separate target site in the same area for \u201cproximity science.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe idea is to get valuable data on the rock we are about to sample by finding its geologic twin and performing detailed in-situ analysis,\u201d said science campaign co<\/em>–lead<\/em> Vivian Sun, from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. \u201cOn the geologic double, first we use an abrading bit to scrape off the top layers of rock and dust to expose fresh, unweathered surfaces, blow it clean with our Gas Dust Removal Tool, and then get up close and personal with our turret-mounted proximity science instruments SHERLOC<\/a>, PIXL<\/a>, and WATSON<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals), PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry), and the WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering) camera will provide mineral and chemical analysis of the abraded target. Perseverance\u2019s SuperCam<\/a> and Mastcam-Z<\/a> instruments, both located on the rover\u2019s mast, will also participate. While SuperCam fires its laser at the abraded surface, spectroscopically measuring the resulting plume and collecting other data, Mastcam-Z will capture high-resolution imagery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working together, these five instruments will enable unprecedented analysis of geological materials at the worksite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter our pre-coring science is complete, we will limit rover tasks for a sol, or a Martian day,\u201d said Sun. \u201cThis will allow the rover to fully charge its battery for the events of the following day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sampling day kicks off with the sample-handling arm within the Adaptive Caching Assembly<\/a> retrieving a sample tube<\/a>, heating it, and then inserting it into a coring bit. A device called the bit carousel transports the tube and bit to a rotary-percussive drill on Perseverance\u2019s robotic arm<\/a>, which will then drill the untouched geologic \u201ctwin\u201d of the rock studied the previous sol, filling the tube with a core sample roughly the size of a piece of chalk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perseverance\u2019s arm will then move the bit-and-tube combination back into bit carousel, which will transfer it back into the Adaptive Caching Assembly, where the sample will be measured for volume, photographed, hermetically sealed, and stored. The next time the sample tube contents are seen, they will be in a clean room facility on Earth, for analysis using scientific instruments much too large to send to Mars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot every sample Perseverance is collecting will be done in the quest for ancient life, and we don\u2019t expect this first sample to provide definitive proof one way or the other,\u201d said Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley, of Caltech. \u201cWhile the rocks located in this geologic unit are not great time capsules for organics, we believe they have been around since the formation of Jezero Crater and incredibly valuable to fill gaps in our geologic understanding of this region \u2013 things we\u2019ll desperately need to know if we find life once existed on Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NASA is making final preparations for its Perseverance Mars rover to collect its first-ever sample of Martian rock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-space-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/nasa-perseverance-mars-rover.jpg",985,423,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/nasa-perseverance-mars-rover-200x200.jpg",200,200,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/nasa-perseverance-mars-rover-675x290.jpg",675,290,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/nasa-perseverance-mars-rover-768x330.jpg",750,322,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/nasa-perseverance-mars-rover-675x290.jpg",675,290,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/nasa-perseverance-mars-rover.jpg",985,423,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/nasa-perseverance-mars-rover.jpg",985,423,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/nasa-perseverance-mars-rover.jpg",985,423,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/nasa-perseverance-mars-rover.jpg",870,374,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/nasa-perseverance-mars-rover.jpg",600,258,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/nasa-perseverance-mars-rover.jpg",600,258,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/nasa-perseverance-mars-rover-760x423.jpg",760,423,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/nasa-perseverance-mars-rover-550x360.jpg",550,360,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/nasa-perseverance-mars-rover-95x65.jpg",95,65,true],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/nasa-perseverance-mars-rover.jpg",640,275,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/nasa-perseverance-mars-rover.jpg",96,41,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/nasa-perseverance-mars-rover.jpg",150,64,false]},"author_info":{"info":["RevoScience"]},"category_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics<\/a>","tag_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}