Along with drilling rock core samples, the science group has been grinding its manner into rocks to make sense of the scientific proof hiding just under the floor.
On June 3, NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover floor down a portion of a rock floor, blew away the ensuing particles, after which went to work finding out its pristine inside with a set of devices designed to find out its mineralogic make-up and geologic origin. “Kenmore,” as nicknamed by the rover science group, is the thirtieth Martian rock that Perseverance has subjected to such in-depth scrutiny, starting with drilling a two-inch-wide (5-centimeter-wide) abrasion patch.
“Kenmore was a bizarre, uncooperative rock,” mentioned Perseverance’s deputy undertaking scientist, Ken Farley from Caltech in Pasadena, California. “Visually, it regarded fantastic — the type of rock we may get a superb abrasion on and maybe, if the science was proper, carry out a pattern assortment. However throughout abrasion, it vibrated in every single place and small chunks broke off. Luckily, we managed to get simply far sufficient under the floor to maneuver ahead with an evaluation.”
The science group needs to get under the weathered, dusty floor of Mars rocks to see vital particulars a few rock’s composition and historical past. Grinding away an abrasion patch additionally creates a flat floor that permits Perseverance’s science devices to stand up shut and private with the rock.
NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Alternative, every carried a diamond-dust-tipped grinder known as the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) that spun at 3,000 revolutions per minute because the rover’s robotic arm pushed it deeper into the rock. Two wire brushes then swept the ensuing particles, or tailings, out of the best way. The company’s Curiosity rover carries a Mud Elimination Software, whose wire bristles sweep mud from the rock’s floor earlier than the rover drills into the rock. Perseverance, in the meantime, depends on a purpose-built abrading bit, and it clears the tailings with a tool that surpasses wire brushes: the gaseous Mud Elimination Software, or gDRT.
“We use Perseverance’s gDRT to fireside a 12-pounds-per-square-inch (about 83 kilopascals) puff of nitrogen on the tailings and dirt that cowl a freshly abraded rock,” mentioned Kyle Kaplan, a robotic engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “5 puffs per abrasion — one to vent the tanks and 4 to clear the abrasion. And gDRT has an extended method to go. Since touchdown at Jezero Crater over 4 years in the past, we’ve puffed 169 instances. There are roughly 800 puffs remaining within the tank.” The gDRT affords a key benefit over a brushing strategy: It avoids any terrestrial contaminants that is perhaps on a brush from getting on the Martian rock being studied.
Having collected knowledge on abraded surfaces greater than 30 instances, the rover group has in-situ science (finding out one thing in its unique place or place) assortment just about down. After gDRT blows the tailings away, the rover’s WATSON (Extensive Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering) imager (which, like gDRT, is on the finish of the rover’s arm) swoops in for close-up images. Then, from its vantage level excessive on the rover’s mast, SuperCam fires 1000’s of particular person pulses from its laser, every time utilizing a spectrometer to find out the make-up of the plume of microscopic materials liberated after each zap. SuperCam additionally employs a distinct spectrometer to research the seen and infrared gentle that bounces off the supplies within the abraded space.
“SuperCam made observations within the abrasion patch and of the powdered tailings subsequent to the patch,” mentioned SuperCam group member and “Crater Rim” campaign science lead, Cathy Quantin-Nataf of the College of Lyon in France. “The tailings confirmed us that this rock comprises clay minerals, which include water as hydroxide molecules sure with iron and magnesium — comparatively typical of historic Mars clay minerals. The abrasion spectra gave us the chemical composition of the rock, displaying enhancements in iron and magnesium.”
Later, the SHERLOC (Scanning Liveable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemical substances) and PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry) devices took a crack at Kenmore, too. Together with supporting SuperCam’s discoveries that the rock contained clay, they detected feldspar (the mineral that makes a lot of the Moon brilliantly vivid in daylight). The PIXL instrument additionally detected a manganese hydroxide mineral within the abrasion — the primary time any such materials has been recognized throughout the mission.
With Kenmore knowledge assortment full, the rover headed off to new territories to discover rocks — each cooperative and uncooperative — alongside the rim of Jezero Crater.
“One factor you study early engaged on Mars rover missions is that not all Mars rocks are created equal,” mentioned Farley. “The info we acquire now from rocks like Kenmore will assist future missions in order that they don’t have to consider bizarre, uncooperative rocks. As an alternative, they’ll have a a lot better thought whether or not you’ll be able to simply drive over it, pattern it, separate the hydrogen and oxygen contained inside for gas, or if it will be appropriate to make use of as development materials for a habitat.”
On June 19 (the 1,540th Martian day, or sol, of the mission), Perseverance bested its earlier document for distance traveled in a single autonomous drive, trekking 1,348 ft (411 meters). That’s about 210 ft (64 meters) greater than its previous record, set on April 3, 2023 (Sol 753). Whereas planners map out the rover’s common routes, Perseverance can reduce down driving time between areas of scientific curiosity through the use of its self-driving system, AutoNav.
“Perseverance drove 4½ soccer fields and will have gone even farther, however that was the place the science group needed us to cease,” mentioned Camden Miller, a rover driver for Perseverance at JPL. “And we completely nailed our cease goal location. On daily basis working on Mars, we study extra on the way to get probably the most out of our rover. And what we study in the present day future Mars missions gained’t must study tomorrow.”
DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
agle@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
2025-082