Mars Perseverance

[candycorn]

There is something that I am not understanding about this mission.

There are a lot of different aspects to the mission. One of which is that it will drill core samples. It will drill 2 inches into rock and then bring the column it extracts from the rock onto the rover and there will be some analysis done of the samples. Then the samples will be put into a sealed tube and stored for a bit of time. Eventually though, according to NASA....the sealed tube will be dropped to the surface and the tubes (30 or so) will then be picked up by a future mission.

It sure seems to me that this part will be fraught with unknowns. First the new mission. How long will it be? What if it fails? Will there be another mission? Next, the idea that the tubes will still be sitting on top of the dirt just waiting to be picked up. Will they get buried under martian sand? Why not just have the samples stay on board and have some sort of "locker" would store the samples and simply detach from Perseverance?

Surface Operations for Perseverance

Does anyone have some info on why they made these decisions?

 

[TNHarley]

There is something that I am not understanding about this mission.

There are a lot of different aspects to the mission. One of which is that it will drill core samples. It will drill 2 inches into rock and then bring the column it extracts from the rock onto the rover and there will be some analysis done of the samples. Then the samples will be put into a sealed tube and stored for a bit of time. Eventually though, according to NASA....the sealed tube will be dropped to the surface and the tubes (30 or so) will then be picked up by a future mission.

It sure seems to me that this part will be fraught with unknowns. First the new mission. How long will it be? What if it fails? Will there be another mission? Next, the idea that the tubes will still be sitting on top of the dirt just waiting to be picked up. Will they get buried under martian sand? Why not just have the samples stay on board and have some sort of "locker" would store the samples and simply detach from Perseverance?

Surface Operations for Perseverance

Does anyone have some info on why they made these decisions?

Your link says they are burying the samples.
Perseverance isnt coming back. I assume thats why.

 

[BULLDOG]

There is something that I am not understanding about this mission.

There are a lot of different aspects to the mission. One of which is that it will drill core samples. It will drill 2 inches into rock and then bring the column it extracts from the rock onto the rover and there will be some analysis done of the samples. Then the samples will be put into a sealed tube and stored for a bit of time. Eventually though, according to NASA....the sealed tube will be dropped to the surface and the tubes (30 or so) will then be picked up by a future mission.

It sure seems to me that this part will be fraught with unknowns. First the new mission. How long will it be? What if it fails? Will there be another mission? Next, the idea that the tubes will still be sitting on top of the dirt just waiting to be picked up. Will they get buried under martian sand? Why not just have the samples stay on board and have some sort of "locker" would store the samples and simply detach from Perseverance?

Surface Operations for Perseverance

Does anyone have some info on why they made these decisions?

Not sure, but it would seem that they expect more samples than could be stored on the device. I assume that the samples will be carried to a central location and dropped each time the storage area is filled, and that will probably be multiple times.

 

[TNHarley]

There is something that I am not understanding about this mission.

There are a lot of different aspects to the mission. One of which is that it will drill core samples. It will drill 2 inches into rock and then bring the column it extracts from the rock onto the rover and there will be some analysis done of the samples. Then the samples will be put into a sealed tube and stored for a bit of time. Eventually though, according to NASA....the sealed tube will be dropped to the surface and the tubes (30 or so) will then be picked up by a future mission.

It sure seems to me that this part will be fraught with unknowns. First the new mission. How long will it be? What if it fails? Will there be another mission? Next, the idea that the tubes will still be sitting on top of the dirt just waiting to be picked up. Will they get buried under martian sand? Why not just have the samples stay on board and have some sort of "locker" would store the samples and simply detach from Perseverance?

Surface Operations for Perseverance

Does anyone have some info on why they made these decisions?

Not sure, but it would seem that they expect more samples than could be stored on the device. I assume that the samples will be carried to a central location and dropped each time the storage area is filled, and that will probably be multiple times.

The link said they are dropping them in strategic spots using "depot caching"
No idea what that means.

 

[Doc7505]

There is something that I am not understanding about this mission.

There are a lot of different aspects to the mission. One of which is that it will drill core samples. It will drill 2 inches into rock and then bring the column it extracts from the rock onto the rover and there will be some analysis done of the samples. Then the samples will be put into a sealed tube and stored for a bit of time. Eventually though, according to NASA....the sealed tube will be dropped to the surface and the tubes (30 or so) will then be picked up by a future mission.

It sure seems to me that this part will be fraught with unknowns. First the new mission. How long will it be? What if it fails? Will there be another mission? Next, the idea that the tubes will still be sitting on top of the dirt just waiting to be picked up. Will they get buried under martian sand? Why not just have the samples stay on board and have some sort of "locker" would store the samples and simply detach from Perseverance?

Surface Operations for Perseverance

Does anyone have some info on why they made these decisions?

Science Instruments on NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover – NASA’s Mars Exploration Program

** Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL)

"PIXL" will analyze drilled rock samples and give mineral information.

 

[candycorn]

There is something that I am not understanding about this mission.

There are a lot of different aspects to the mission. One of which is that it will drill core samples. It will drill 2 inches into rock and then bring the column it extracts from the rock onto the rover and there will be some analysis done of the samples. Then the samples will be put into a sealed tube and stored for a bit of time. Eventually though, according to NASA....the sealed tube will be dropped to the surface and the tubes (30 or so) will then be picked up by a future mission.

It sure seems to me that this part will be fraught with unknowns. First the new mission. How long will it be? What if it fails? Will there be another mission? Next, the idea that the tubes will still be sitting on top of the dirt just waiting to be picked up. Will they get buried under martian sand? Why not just have the samples stay on board and have some sort of "locker" would store the samples and simply detach from Perseverance?

Surface Operations for Perseverance

Does anyone have some info on why they made these decisions?

Your link says they are burying the samples.
Perseverance isnt coming back. I assume thats why.

Yeah.

It seems to me like it would be better to have some sort of device that holds on to the tubes instead of having them laying all around and forcing the following craft from picking up the items one at a time.

 

[candycorn]

There is something that I am not understanding about this mission.

There are a lot of different aspects to the mission. One of which is that it will drill core samples. It will drill 2 inches into rock and then bring the column it extracts from the rock onto the rover and there will be some analysis done of the samples. Then the samples will be put into a sealed tube and stored for a bit of time. Eventually though, according to NASA....the sealed tube will be dropped to the surface and the tubes (30 or so) will then be picked up by a future mission.

It sure seems to me that this part will be fraught with unknowns. First the new mission. How long will it be? What if it fails? Will there be another mission? Next, the idea that the tubes will still be sitting on top of the dirt just waiting to be picked up. Will they get buried under martian sand? Why not just have the samples stay on board and have some sort of "locker" would store the samples and simply detach from Perseverance?

Surface Operations for Perseverance

Does anyone have some info on why they made these decisions?

Not sure, but it would seem that they expect more samples than could be stored on the device. I assume that the samples will be carried to a central location and dropped each time the storage area is filled, and that will probably be multiple times.

Yeah, it will supposedly store 30 of them and drop all 30 at a central location. But they will be dropped like taking a deck of 30 cards and dropping them at your feet. It seems like it would be easier for the follow-up vessel if they were still in the box.

 

[candycorn]

Yeah, here's a 37 second animation of what they hope will be following the Perseverance rover.



They're miles smarter than me so I'm sure they thought it all out and all but see all of the tubes on the front of it? Just seems to me that it would be easier to have had all of the tubes in one container.

Now (in case you don't know) the tubes will be put into a sealed container for the return trip. It will be like quadruple sealed to protect Earth from whatever Martian fungus comes back.

Here's the one minute video fo the return.

 

[BULLDOG]

There is something that I am not understanding about this mission.

There are a lot of different aspects to the mission. One of which is that it will drill core samples. It will drill 2 inches into rock and then bring the column it extracts from the rock onto the rover and there will be some analysis done of the samples. Then the samples will be put into a sealed tube and stored for a bit of time. Eventually though, according to NASA....the sealed tube will be dropped to the surface and the tubes (30 or so) will then be picked up by a future mission.

It sure seems to me that this part will be fraught with unknowns. First the new mission. How long will it be? What if it fails? Will there be another mission? Next, the idea that the tubes will still be sitting on top of the dirt just waiting to be picked up. Will they get buried under martian sand? Why not just have the samples stay on board and have some sort of "locker" would store the samples and simply detach from Perseverance?

Surface Operations for Perseverance

Does anyone have some info on why they made these decisions?

Not sure, but it would seem that they expect more samples than could be stored on the device. I assume that the samples will be carried to a central location and dropped each time the storage area is filled, and that will probably be multiple times.

Yeah, it will supposedly store 30 of them and drop all 30 at a central location. But they will be dropped like taking a deck of 30 cards and dropping them at your feet. It seems like it would be easier for the follow-up vessel if they were still in the box.

You can be assured they will be stacked or arranged in some way that will be easily retrieved. It's NASA. They don't overlook much.

 

[teodor88]

Mars helicopter pushes its Red Planet limits.
The rotorcraft completed its 9th and most challenging flight yet, flying for 166.4 seconds at a speed of 5 m/s. Take a look at this shot of Ingenuity’s shadow captured with its navigation camera.
Mars Helicopter

 

[teodor88]

The 11th flight of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which will happen no earlier than Wednesday night, Aug. 4. The mission profile is designed to stay ahead of the rover – supporting its future science goals in the “South Séítah” region, where it will be able to gather aerial imagery in support of future Perseverance Mars rover surface operations in the area.

 

[teodor88]

The Curiosity rover had managed to collect 32 Martian rock samples by using a drill attached to robotic arm. Perseverance rovere mission still keeps searching for signs of past life on the red planet by analyzing the chemical, mineral, physical and organic characteristics of the rocks.

 

[Dayton3]

There is something that I am not understanding about this mission.

There are a lot of different aspects to the mission. One of which is that it will drill core samples. It will drill 2 inches into rock and then bring the column it extracts from the rock onto the rover and there will be some analysis done of the samples. Then the samples will be put into a sealed tube and stored for a bit of time. Eventually though, according to NASA....the sealed tube will be dropped to the surface and the tubes (30 or so) will then be picked up by a future mission.

It sure seems to me that this part will be fraught with unknowns. First the new mission. How long will it be? What if it fails? Will there be another mission? Next, the idea that the tubes will still be sitting on top of the dirt just waiting to be picked up. Will they get buried under martian sand? Why not just have the samples stay on board and have some sort of "locker" would store the samples and simply detach from Perseverance?

Surface Operations for Perseverance

Does anyone have some info on why they made these decisions?

Same reason most decisions are made regarding NASA missions:

Money (or the lack thereof).