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Perseverance’s 2nd drill attempt to get sample appears successful

It appears that Perseverance’s second drill attempt on Mars has successfully obtained sample material in its core.

Data received late Sept. 1 from NASA’s Perseverance rover indicate the team has achieved its goal of successfully coring a Mars rock. The initial images downlinked after the historic event show an intact sample present in the tube after coring. However, additional images taken after the arm completed sample acquisition were inconclusive due to poor sunlight conditions. Another round of images with better lighting will be taken before the sample processing continues.

Once they know for sure if they have a sample, they will store it and then move on, heading to the area that Ingenuity scouted for them in mid-August.

Posted halfway to Las Vegas.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
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"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

4 comments

  • Steve Richter

    I think the rovers should be named by the year they landed on Mars.

  • MDN

    I am surprised that the core diameter is only about 1/2 that of the drill. I guess that is necessary in order to be able to break the rock core free in some way since these are blind holes. Interesting.

  • pzatchok

    This whole experiment would suck if Musk and crew get there first and pick up the samples by hand as they drive by taking their own samples.

  • wayne

    (meanwhile, back on Earth…)
    Black Diamond Drilling Services Australia (2018)
    “Core drilling: Conventional Vs. Wire-line Process; ”
    https://youtu.be/HjSX41ecm94
    2:19

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