JAKARTA - NASA's Perseverance rover took two new samples from the surface of Mars on December 2 and December 6. However, this time the robot did not take rock, but a sand and dust.
This latest sample comes from piles of wind-blown sand and dust, called regolith. Now that sample has entered a special metal-gathering tube, one of the two samples will be stored on the Martian surface around this month as part of a Mars Sample Return campaign.
Scientists want to study Martian samples with powerful laboratory equipment on Earth, in order to look for signs of ancient microbial life and to better understand the processes that make up the Martian surface.
Most of the samples are rock, but scientists also want to check regolith. This is because regolith is claimed to be able to produce knowledge to reduce some of the challenges astronauts will face when tackling the Red Planet.
Regolith can affect everything, from spacesuits to solar panels. Like rock cores, regoliths are collected using drills at the tips of the rover's robotic arm.
But for the new sample, Perseverance uses a drill bit that looks like a nail with a small hole at one end to collect loose material, called Mojave Mars Simulant.
"Everything we learned about the size, shape, and chemical properties of regolith grains helps us design and test better tools for future missions," said scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which leads Perseverance's mission, Iona Tirona.
What does Regolith get?
Launching NASA's official website, Friday, December 9, studying closely regolith can help scientists design future Mars missions, as well as equipment used by Martian astronauts later.
Regolith and dust can damage spacecraft and science instruments. Regolith can clog sensitive parts and slow down the rover on the surface.
Not only Mars, the Moon's regolith was also found sharp enough to tear up a microscopic hole in the spacesuit during the Apollo mission to the Moon.
Regolith can help if packed in habitat to protect astronauts from radiation, but also contain risks. The Martian surface contains perclorat, a toxic chemical that can threaten astronauts' health if a large amount is inhaled or swallowed accidentally.
For information, NASA's next mission will be in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA), which will send a spacecraft to Mars to collect the sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
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