The NASA rover Perseverance is blocked with rocks

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The Rover team is working on a repair.

A little collection of pebbles is hindering the activities of the Perseverance Mars rover.

The rover, gathering rock samples for potential return to Earth, began to suffer on December 29 after removing a core from a rock dubbed "Issole" by the mission team. According to a NASA blog, the malfunction happened in the equipment that moves the drill bit and sample from the rover's drill arm to a storage carousel within the chassis. During the transfer, the rover's sensors detected a greater-than-expected quantity of friction at an unexpected time.

The rover shut down and transmitted a signal to Earth. Due to the discrepancy between Martian days and Earth days, which limits the speed at which data can transmit, the rover Perseverance took approximately one week to respond to requests for more data. The researchers then instructed the rover to be its mechanic by withdrawing the drill bit and undocking its drilling arm to image its interior.

Based on photos that have been taken show that : a little collection of stones inside the carousel. These debris fragments detached from the sample during the transfer procedure and obstructed the drill bit's appropriate placement within the bit carousel.

The carousel is designed to function despite some debris, but NASA operators are taking their time to devise a solution.

Louise Jandura, principal engineer for sampling & caching at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, noted in a blog post, "This is not the first curveball Mars has thrown us; it's simply the latest." "When the engineering problem is hundreds of millions of miles away (Mars is currently 215 million miles from Earth [346 million kilometers]), we've discovered that it pays to be patient and thorough. Here, we are going to do that, "She continued.

The Mars lander Perseverance landed on Mars on February 18, 2021. It is investigating Jezero Crater, a former river delta. The objective is to collect rock and soil samples to determine whether the crater formerly supported life. However, it is hoped that a future Mars mission would be able to rescue the rover's rock samples and return them to Earth.

This is not the first time the Perseverance team has overcome an issue with sample collection. The very first effort by the rover to collect a rock sample failed. However, the rover acquired two rock samples in fast succession.

Reference : https://www.livescience.com/perseverance-clogged-pebbles

Image source : https://pixabay.com/id/illustrations/semesta-langit-bintang-2742113/

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