Perseverance rover successfully collects first rock sample on Mars
NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance has successfully collected a sample from a Martian rock. The space agency shares a photo with a full sample tube. However, due to poor light in a second photo, it is unclear whether the sample is still in the tube.
The first photo of the sample tube shows how the tube inside the hollow drill is filled with Mars rock. NASA also shares a photo of the rock Perseverance drilled a sample from. It is a stone the size of a briefcase, says the space agency. The sample is just slightly thicker than a pencil.
After collecting the sample, Perseverance began the percuss to ingest procedure, vibrating the drill and tube five times for one second. With these vibrations, NASA wants to ensure that the end of the tube no longer has any residual material. This action may also cause the sample to sink further into the tube.
After this procedure, NASA took another photo with the Mastcam-Z stereo zoom cameras. However, in this photo it is no longer possible to see whether the sample is still in the tube or not, due to poor light. NASA thinks there is still a monster in the tube, but wants to wait for better images with more light to be sure. NASA will receive additional images Friday and Saturday with which it hopes to confirm whether the tube is still full or not.
If these images are also inconclusive, the Perseverance team still has a few options. This allows them to weigh within the Perseverance chassis with the Sampling and Caching system whether there is material in the tube.
Perseverance drilled the rock on Wednesday. It is the first time that Perseverance has successfully collected a rock monster. An earlier attempt in August failed. The rover has a total of 43 titanium tubes for soil samples, of which at least 20 are planned to be filled. NASA plans to launch another spacecraft with ESA to bring the samples back to Earth for research.
From left to right: the filled sample tube, the sample tube after the percuss to ingest procedure, and the rock from which the sample was drilled.