07/26/2021 10:39
Clarín.com
International
Updated 07/26/2021 2:55 PM
What is this and why does it protrude from a rock on Mars? Asks the Twitter account of the
Perseverance mission
in response to the interest aroused by the public, who voted it as the image of the week of July 18-24.
The answer is that it is a
discarded
bit
, used by the Perseverance rover to clean the surface of targets of interest on the floor of
the Jezero crater
, it stars in one of the prominent images of the mission that landed on the red planet earlier this year.
What is your function?
Perseverance took ten drill bits to Mars.
Most are for
collecting samples
;
others, like the one in the photo, are for
polishing rocks
(polishing the outer surface).
All this is part of the equipment that will allow us to reach the
scientific clues
hidden within the rocks.
What's this thing, and why is it sticking out of a Mars rock?
(And no, it's not a lightsaber handle.) Let me explain: 🧵 pic.twitter.com/bS9yvObLYD
- NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) July 23, 2021
This particular bit was installed prior to launch, to close the drill and keep the interior protected.
To keep her research neat and clear, Perseverance left her behind on her way before she began collecting samples with new, flawless bits.
The abrasive bit
was used to clean a small hole in the rock
.
The mission
The Perseverance rover, the
fifth vehicle
that NASA sends to Mars and the most ambitious mission of the US space agency to the Red Planet, reached its goal on February 18, 2021.
The mission, which landed safely in Jezero Crater, is scientifically focused on finding out
if there was ever life on Mars
in the past.
Jezero is a basin in which scientists believe that an ancient river emptied into a lake and deposited
fan-shaped
sediment
known as a delta.
The designated area to collect the first sample of Mars that will be brought to Earth on future missions.
Photo: NASA / JPL
Experts believe that the environment there has likely preserved
signs of any life that took hold billions of years ago
, but Jezero also has rugged cliffs, sand dunes, and rock fields.
Landing on Mars is difficult
, only about 50 percent of all previous landing attempts on Mars were successful, and these geological features make it even more so.
The Perseverance team builds on lessons from previous missions and employs
new technologies
that allow the spacecraft to target its landing site with greater precision and autonomously avoid hazards.
The mission's Ingenuity helicopter has completed its ninth flight: Photo: NASA JPL CALTECH
As part of the mission, the Ingenuity helicopter has already completed its ninth flight: a high-speed trip through hostile terrain, in which it flew away from its mother, the Perseverance rover, thus breaking its land speed records, distance and flight time.
To achieve this, Ingenuity was instructed to fly
625 meters at 5 meters per second and remained in the air for 166.4 seconds
, as confirmed on its Twitter account by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which operates the mission.
With information from Europa Press.
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