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The endurance Rovers from NASA uses a bit to get under the surface of a rocky outcrops with the nickname “Kenmore” in Jezero Crater. . | Credit: NASA/JPL-CALTECH
The endurance of NASA digs deeper into the geological past of Mars when she dragged into red planet rock areas to reveal material that keeps indications of the old environment and habitability of the planet.
At the beginning of this month, the endurance Rover used its abrasion tool to scrape off the top layer of a rocky Mars outcrop “Kenmore” and to reveal a fresh surface for the close-up of the composition and history of the rock. The procedure in which a combination of mechanical grinding and gas pawns enables scientists to examine rock motifs that have not been changed by wind, radiation or dust for over billions.
“Kenmore was a strange, uncooperative stone,” said Ken Farley, deputy project scientist of persistence. “Visually, it looked okay – the type of rock that we could borrow well, and maybe if the science was correct, carry out a sample collection. But during the abrasion she vibrated everywhere and small pieces broke off. Fortunately, we managed to get far enough under the surface to go forward with an analysis.”
The latest abrasion marks a shift in the focus of the rover from mainly scouting and sampling to more detailed in-situ science. Compared to its predecessors, endurance uses an extended abrading bit and gas dust removal instrument or a GDRT that uses five nitrogen clouds to delete samples in a way that represents a lower risk of contamination. For comparison, earlier rover used a brush to sweep rubble or tailings out of the way.
Credit: NASA/JPL-CALTECH
After completing an abrasion, the science instruments of persistence forms are used to examine the exposed rock. The Watson (wide-angle topographical sensor for operations and engineering) of the rover takes close-ups, while its Supercam uses laser impulses to analyze the composition of evaporated material with a spectrometer and to study visible and infrared light that is reflected from the freshly exposed surface with another.
“The tailings have shown us that this rock contains clay minerals that contain water as hydroxide molecules that are bound with iron and magnesium -relatively typical for old Mars tone minerals.” Cathy Quantin-Nataf, Supercam team member, said in the explanation. “The abrasion spectra gave us the chemical composition of the rock that showed improvements in iron and magnesium.”
Persistence is also based on his Sherloc (Scanning Habitable environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organic and Chemicals) and Pixl (Planetary Instrument for X-ray lithochemistry) to determine the mineral content, the chemical composition and the potential signs of the activity of the previous water or even the microbial lifespan. In fact, these tools not only found further indications of sound, but also discovered feldspar – a mineral that is common in both the earth’s crust as well as on the moon and other rocky planets. The team also found manganese hydroxide in the observed specimens for the first time.
“The data that we now receive from rocks such as Kenmore will help future missions so that they do not have to think about strange, uncooperative rocks,” said Farley. “Instead, you have a much better idea of whether you can easily drive it, try it, can separate the hydrogen and the oxygen, which is contained inside for fuel or whether it would be suitable to use as a building material for a habitat.”
The work is carried out in the Jezero crater of Mars, a 28-mile width basin in which a river delta and a lake were once held. Scientists believe that the region contains some of the best preserved records of the wet past of Mars, which makes it a first -class place for the search for biosignatures or indicators for old life. Kenmore represents the 30th Martian -Rock, who studied perseverance so detailed.
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The persistence continues to collect rock core samples that are sealed in tubes and are kept for a possible future return to earth by the planned campaign for Mars sample return (MSR) -although the recently published NASA budget of the NASA budget of the Trump management is suggested to reduce the MSR program as a whole.
