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NASA launched in the second half of last month With the preparation of the rover diligenceCollect the first rock samples on Mars. While this may seem like a simple task, the opposite is true. The reason is that for this purpose, the rover must first create images of the site that will be suitable for the model, and then select a specific well site based on the photos for the scientists to go to work.
Of course, the control of the rover takes place at a distance with a delay of a few minutes in each movement of the rover. It should also be added that NASA scientists do not have enough information about the composition of the geology at the well site, which poses a number of risks. Among other things, the rover must be automatically processed and preserved on site. Here is the latest news NASA showsThat Collecting samples may not be as easy as many of us think. The reason is that the first attempt to obtain samples of diligence failed.
NASA writes that even if everything went as planned and the rover drilled in the Xerox abyss to collect the sample, they found it The sounding pipe did not actually collect any rocks.
What went wrong?
Current We still do not know exactly what went wrong. One of the hypotheses that NASA came up with was that the problem was in the rock.
“So far, we think the rock target may not be responding as we expected during the empty pipe model, and the hardware failure scenario for the model and storage system is low,” Jennifer Trosper said in a statement. Diligent work from JBL.
Trosper added that a detailed analysis would be carried out in the next few days to understand exactly what happened. It should be added that NASA has faced similar problems in the past. In 2008, as part of the Phoenix sampling process, scientists discovered “sticky” soil and had trouble obtaining tools for further processing. Later, as part of the Curiosity mission, scientists again encountered harder and weaker rocks than expected.
Diligence is currently exploring two geographical units, which include the deep and pristine layers of the Jessero Valley and other interesting geological elements.
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