![]() ![]() Described as one of the most complex robotic systems ever built, the Sample and Caching System will collect core samples from the rocky surface of Mars, seal them in tubes and leave them for a future mission to retrieve and bring back to Earth. NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover Sample Caching System: Watch as NASA-JPL engineers test the Sample Caching System on the Perseverance Mars rover. “This will allow the rover to fully charge its battery for the events of the following day.” “After our pre-coring science is complete, we will limit rover tasks for a sol, or a Martian day,” said Sun. Working together, these five instruments will enable unprecedented analysis of geological materials at the worksite. 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. Perseverance’s SuperCam and Mastcam-Z instruments, both located on the rover’s mast, will also participate. 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. “On 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, PIXL, and WATSON.” “The 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,” said science campaign co- lead Vivian Sun, from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. It will then perform an imagery survey, so NASA’s science team can determine the exact location for taking the first sample and a separate target site in the same area for “proximity science.” The sampling sequence begins with the rover placing everything necessary for sampling within reach of its 7-foot-long (2-meter-long) robotic arm. 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 – the Sampling and Caching System. It took Armstrong 3 minutes and 35 seconds to collect that first Moon sample. We are on the threshold of a new era of planetary science and discovery.” “I have every expectation that Perseverance’s first sample from Jezero Crater, and those that come after, will do the same for Mars. “When Neil Armstrong took the first sample from the Sea of Tranquility 52 years ago, he began a process that would rewrite what humanity knew about the Moon,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters. Perseverance First Sample Location: This annotated image depicts the area within the “Cratered Floor Fractured Rough” geologic unit that Perseverance rover will hunt for a suitable first sample target. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |