NASA’s Perseverance rover drilled into the surface of Mars for the first time to collect a rock sample but came up empty.
The drilling process was conducted autonomously on Friday and was supposed to collect the rock sample from Jezero Crater on Mars and seal it in a sample tube, but no rock was collected, as the research team found out shortly.
“While this is not the ‘hole-in-one’ we hoped for, there is always risk with breaking new ground,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the NASA Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
He said in a statement that he is confident NASA has the right team working on the project, adding, “we will persevere toward a solution to ensure future success.”
The rover has 43 sample tubes to collect rocks and dust for future analysis on Earth, so there are plenty of opportunities for success.
The sampling system uses a hollow coring bit and percussive drill at the of a 7 foot robotic arm. During the first coring attempt, the drill and bit were engaged as planned and the sample tube was processed as planned.
After the drilling process, further investigation was done to measure the volume of the sample, but there was none.
A team of researchers will be analyzing data and will take close up images of the borehole. Initially, the team believes that the empty tube was because the rocks that were targeted in the borehole did not react to the drill as expected. It was less likely that there was a hardware issue with the Perseverance system, said Jennifer Trosper, project manager for Perseverance at JPL.
In 2008, the Pheonix mission on Mars encountered sticky soil, which required multiple tries. “It’s not unusual to have complications during complex, first-time activities,” Trosper said.
Perseverance is searching for signs of ancient microbial life in its $2.7 billion mission, in preparation for human exploration of the planet. It is expected to travel for hundreds of Martian days in its first science foray to fill up to eight sample tubes.
The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has been scouting areas of scientific interest and looking out for potential hazards that Perseverance might encounter. Ingenuity finished its 11th flight on Aug. 4, flying about 1,250 feet from its current location to provide aerial reconnaissance of the southern Seitah area.
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