Last week, the rover tried to collect its first core. But its tube was empty. The sample was supposed to have been taken out of a hole about finger-size in the rock. There were also piles of the "cuttings" that had been made by the drill. There was no sample.NASA's Perseverance Team determined that the rock had likely been crushed into small pieces or powder after analyzing the data from the rover over several days.Louise Jandura (chief engineer for the sampling system), stated in a NASA blog on Wednesday that "it appears that the rock wasn't robust enough to produce core." "The core material is likely to be found in the bottom of the hole or in the cuttings pile. Or a combination of both."Perseverance dug a hole in a Mars rock on August 20, 2021. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)The team now plans to send Perseverance on a mission to Seitah in the sand, to collect a stronger rock. The ancient lake sediment should be more similar to the rocks used by Perseverance to test his tools on Earth. NASA plans to core a new rock next month."The hardware did what was expected, but the rock refused to cooperate." Jandura posted in his blog, "It reminds me once again of the nature exploration." "No matter how well you plan, a specific result can never be guaranteed."It wasn't an technical failure. Perseverance seems to have done everything it was supposed. To remove dust and other surface coatings, it used an abrasion instrument to reach its target, a rock found in an ancient Mars lake. This rock could once have been home to alien life.The rover then extended its 7-foot (2-metre) long arm which features a sample-collection device at the end. This tool uses a percussive drilling to push a hollow core bit into the rock. It went in exactly as planned. The tube came up empty.Arm for Perseverance sample collection. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)That tube is just one of the 43 Perseverance has. These tubes are the core of Perseverance's Mars exploration mission to Jezero Crater, where they will collect samples.NASA has spent more than US$2 billion and nine years to collect and store Martian rocks. It plans to send another mission on Mars in about a decade to recover the samples and return them to Earth. Scientists will then be able to determine if microbial life existed in the lake that once surrounded Jezero Crater.These samples are the result of a lot of planning and money. Jandura says that the last few days have been "a rollercoaster ride of emotions."Business Insider originally published this article.Business Insider has more:
