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In August, NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover started its fifth science marketing campaign — the rover’s most formidable but. The marketing campaign has seen Perseverance climb the western rim of Jezero Crater and face its steepest and most difficult terrain but, all of the whereas persevering with to take floor samples and search for indicators of historical microbial life. At present, Perseverance is predicted to crest over the crater rim in early December.

Nevertheless, groups have confronted many challenges with navigating up the crater rim. A lot of the terrain Perseverance has been driving over is rather more slippery than initially thought, which has slowed the rover’s progress up the crater rim. Extra particularly, the crater rim terrain has been discovered to be loosely packed mud and sand with skinny and brittle crusts, resulting in the rover’s wheels slipping considerably.

On many days, Perseverance has solely coated half the gap it will’ve coated on non-slippery terrain. In actual fact, throughout someday of climbing, the terrain was so steep and slippery that the rover was solely capable of drive 20% of the deliberate route. Whereas earlier rovers like Curiosity, Alternative, and Spirit have confronted steep and slippery terrain, none have confronted terrain as excessive as this.

“Mars rovers have pushed over steeper terrain, they usually’ve pushed over extra slippery terrain, however that is the primary time one needed to deal with each — and on this scale. For each two steps ahead Perseverance takes, we had been taking no less than one step again. The rover planners noticed this was trending towards a protracted, onerous slog, so we obtained collectively to assume up some choices,” mentioned rover route planner Camden Miller of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California.

Groups have been working during the last a number of weeks to find out methods to scale back the quantity of slippage Perseverance’s wheels expertise. On Oct. 3, the crew despatched instructions to the rover to check a few of these methods, which included having the rover drive up a slope backward, as testing on Earth has revealed that the rover’s suspension system maintains higher traction when driving backward. Moreover, the crew had Perseverance try cross-slope (or switchback) driving and driving towards the northern fringe of the crater. All of those makes an attempt had been made as Perseverance was making its means up “Summerland Path,” the identify of the route Perseverance is taking on the crater rim.

Whereas all three makes an attempt elevated Perseverance’s traction whereas climbing the crater rim, the crew decided that driving the rover towards the northern fringe of the crater rim was essentially the most useful as a result of presence of bigger rocks nearer to the floor.

“That’s the plan proper now, however we could have to vary issues up the street. No Mars rover mission has tried to climb up a mountain this massive this quick. The science crew desires to get to the highest of the crater rim as quickly as potential due to the scientific alternatives up there. It’s as much as us rover planners to determine a technique to get them there,” Miller mentioned.

Picture exhibiting the steep and slippery terrain Perseverance has encountered on its climb to the crater rim. (Credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

As talked about, Perseverance is predicted to crest the crater rim in early December, and the positioning at which it is going to crest is called “Lookout Hill.” After cresting the crater rim at Lookout Hill, the rover will proceed driving one other 450 m to a different location, named “Witch Hazel Hill.” Present information from orbital spacecraft round Mars has proven that Witch Hazel Hill probably accommodates light-toned layered bedrock, which the crew will evaluate to the “Shiny Angel” location Perseverance beforehand investigated.

Alongside its travels up the crater rim, and all through the rover’s 4 earlier science campaigns, Perseverance has been accumulating samples of the Martian floor, rocks, and different floor options. As soon as collected, the samples are dropped into considered one of 43 complete pattern tubes and subsequently dropped onto the Martian floor for assortment by one other mission at a later date. So far, Perseverance has collected, sealed, and deposited 24 pattern tubes, in addition to one atmospheric pattern tube and three “witness” tubes, that are pattern tubes which were preloaded with supplies that may seize contaminants round pattern assortment websites.

Within the planning levels of Perseverance’s mission, groups required the rover to gather and cache 31 pattern tubes at minimal. In subsequent planning and design conferences, 12 extra tubes had been added in anticipation of points with different pattern tubes whereas on Mars, bringing the full variety of tubes to 43.

The Summerland Path route Perseverance is taking to the highest of the crater rim. (Credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech/College of Arizona)

Now nearing 4 years into its mission on the Martian floor, Perseverance has 11 empty pattern tubes obtainable for pattern assortment occasions, in addition to two empty witness tubes. Just lately, NASA and Perseverance’s groups determined to retire two empty pattern tubes because of their location on the rover. Perseverance accesses the pattern tubes utilizing a small inner robotic arm, and accessing these two tubes posed a danger to the arm because of a wire harness probably getting caught onto a fastener on the rover’s body.

Following Perseverance’s cresting of the crater rim in December, the rover’s fifth science marketing campaign will start to conclude, and groups will start to arrange for the sixth science marketing campaign.

(Lead picture: Selfie of Perseverance a deposited pattern tube. Credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)