Mars' weird geology is making Perseverance's job more complicated

[marmar]

Mars' weird geology is making Perseverance's job more complicated
Perseverance took a rock sample that crumbled to dust, confounding scientists. Geologists now know what happened

By NICOLE KARLIS
PUBLISHED AUGUST 26, 2021 7:00PM



(Salon) Earlier this month, the Perseverance rover set out to collect some rock samples on Mars. It was supposed to be a key moment in the rover's historic sample-return mission, one in which Perseverance was to collect, store and return Martian rock and soil samples to Earth. (The rocket that will pick up the samples hasn't launched yet, and may not for almost a decade; currently, Perseverance is doing the grunt work of collection.) To date, Perseverance had been highly successful: its risky landing worked perfectly, and Ingenuity, the 4-pound helicopter that hitched a ride to Mars on Perseverance's back, overcame massive barriers to become the first powered-controlled flight on another planet. Compared to those feats, Perseverance's next task — drilling out a finger-sized hole in a rock — seemed simple. But after the drilling, the collection tube came back empty. Mission control was in disbelief.

As Salon previously reported, scientists rushed to figure out why the sample went missing. Did the drill somehow miss? It didn't seem so — images from the Red Planet revealed there was a hole in the rock.

So what happened once the drill came out of the rock?

After some sleuthing, NASA's Perseverance team determined that the rock most likely crumbled into "small fragments" — essentially, a powder. While the pulverization of the rock sample was disappointing to the team, it was also a lesson in Martian geology.

"It's certainly not the first time Mars has surprised us," said Kiersten Siebach, an assistant professor of planetary biology at Rice University and participating scientist on the science and operations team for Perseverance. "A big part of exploration is figuring out what tools to use and how to approach the rocks on Mars." .............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/08/26/mars-weird-geology-is-making-perseverances-job-more-complicated/

[DavidDvorkin]

1. Aresology?

For the moon, it's selenology.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. Areology. nt

[DavidDvorkin]

3. Ah! Right.

[krispos42]

4. My company made some of the parts for Percy

Including the sample tubes and some of the drill bits. The boss is very proud of this; mentions it to new customers all the time.

I really, really want this to work!