Washington: NASA’s perseverance was drilled to the surface of Mars but failed in his initial efforts to collect rock samples to be taken by the future mission for analysis by scientists on Earth.
The US wine body published a picture of Friday a small mound with a hole in the middle next to Rover – which was first excavated into the red planet with a robot.
But data was sent to Earth by Rover after the first attempt to collect samples and seal it in the tube shown no rock collected.
“Even though this is not a ‘hole-in-one” that we expect, there is always a risk by breaking new land, “said Thomas Zurbuchen, Administrator Associate for the Directorate of NASA Science Mission, in a statement.
“I’m sure we have the right team working this, and we will survive towards a solution to ensure success in the future.” Drill holes are the first step of the sampling process which is expected to take around 11 days, with the aim of finding signs of ancient microbial life that may have been preserved in ancient deposits and lakes.
Scientists also hope to better understand the geology of Mars.
The mission took off from Florida a little more than a year ago and perseverance, which was the size of a large family car, landed on February 18 at the Jezero crater.
Scientists believed the crater contained a deep Lake 3.5 billion years ago, where conditions might be able to support the space life.
NASA planned a mission to bring around 30 samples back to earth in the 2030s, to be analyzed by a much more sophisticated instrument than that can be taken to Mars at this time.