NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover

Mars Guy (YouTube) Episode 150

On the 72nd flight of its 5-flight mission, Ingenuity suffered catastrophic damage when its rotor blades contacted a sand ripple during landing. Now it’s beaming back new images from tests that expose the extent of the destruction.

Zoom in to see the location of the helicopter (upper left of the tiled NavCam)

Engineers are working to stabilize a dust cover on one of the science instrument’s cameras.

Data and imagery from NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover indicate one of two covers that keep dust from accumulating on the optics of the SHERLOC instrument remains partially open. In this position, the cover interferes with science data collection operations. Mounted on the rover’s robotic arm, SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals) uses cameras, a spectrometer, and a laser to search for organic compounds and minerals that have been altered in watery environments and may be signs of past microbial life.

The mission determined on Jan. 6 that the cover was oriented in such a position that some of its operation modes could not successfully operate. An engineering team has been investigating to determine the root cause and possible solutions. Recently, the cover partially opened. To better understand the behavior of the cover’s motor, the team has been sending commands to the instrument that alter the amount of power being fed to it.

With the cover in its current position, the instrument cannot use its laser on rock targets, and cannot collect spectroscopy data. However, imaging microscopy can still be acquired with WATSON, a color camera on SHERLOC used for taking close-up images of rock grains and surface textures. WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering) operates through a different aperture.

This photo was selected by public vote and featured as "Image of the Week" for Week 156 (February 4 - 10, 2024) of the Perseverance rover mission on Mars. NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its Right Mastcam-Z camera. Mastcam-Z is a pair of cameras located high on the rover's mast. This image was acquired on Feb. 6, 2024 (Sol 1054) at the local mean solar time of 11:53:51. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

Rover and Helicopter update

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover captured this mosaic showing the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at its final airfield on Feb. 4, 2024. The helicopter damaged its rotor blades during landing on its 72nd flight on Jan. 18, 2024. The Ingenuity team has nicknamed the spot where the helicopter completed its final flight "Valinor Hills" after the fictional location in J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy novels, which include "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

The six images that were stitched together to make up this mosaic were captured from about 1,475 feet (450 meters) away by the rover's Mastcam-Z imager. Shown here is an enhanced-color view that exaggerates subtle color differences in the scene to show more detail.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

MastCam-Z full zoom. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

Perseverance rover acquired this image using its Right Mastcam-Z camera. Mastcam-Z is a pair of cameras located high on the rover's mast. This image was acquired on Feb. 6, 2024 (Sol 1054) at the local mean solar time of 11:54:39. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

I would like to announce our "sister" Lemmy Community About Curiosity who is roaming Gale Crater since 2012. !curiosityrover@lemmy.world

I know it's the Perseverance page, but I thought you nay like to see this MAHLI camera image from Sol 4088 - Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

See Mars Stu's original post on X - https://twitter.com/mars_stu/status/1754450759662334082

Episode 148 Mars has two tiny potato-shaped moons that may be captured asteroids. Last month, Perseverance turned the zoom lens of its color camera toward the Sun in time to capture video of Deimos passing in front of it.

Abstract - 55th LPSC (2024)

Introduction: The Mars Helicopter Ingenuity was designed to operate for a prime mission of just 30 sols on the martian surface, but has successfully continued to fly for almost 1.5 Mars years (3 Earth-years) [1,2]. The solar-powered vehicle has completed over 70 flights and survived both a winter as well as regional dust storms that have passed through Jezero crater. The solar array powering Ingenuity has inevitably slowly accumulated dust throughout the mission. Some dust is likely removed during flights as well as passively by martian winds and saltating sand. However, a net result of long-term operations has been a decrease in solar array energy output by ~35%. Dust on Mars is primarily lifted by wind-driven saltation of sand and granules [3] and has previously been observed with Spirit and Opportunity [4], InSight [5], Curiosity [6], and Perseverance [7]. In an experiment to potentially clean dust off Ingenuity’s solar array during the November 2023 solar conjunction, Ingenuity strategically landed on a patch of dark-toned aeolian ripples at 77.33365324°E, 18.49481303°N (Fig. 1). In this abstract, we summarize initial results of the observed changes.

This raw image shows SHERLOC's cover (bottom center) stuck partially open, or partially closed, whichever (hopefully closed). This image was from sol 1041. I see more raw images tonight that still show SHERLOC taking vague and foggy images, the same as the ones posted before and after this raw image. I'm assuming this is still an issue. What's the level of concern? What options do they have?

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

link to paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adi8339

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