spacetoday.net: First Perseverance sampling attempt comes up empty

First Perseverance sampling attempt comes up empty

Posted: Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 6:13 PM ET (2213 GMT)
NASA is trying to understand why the first sampling attempt by its Perseverance Mars rover came up empty. NASA said late Aug. 6 that while the rover had drilled a rock and gathered a sample, that sample did not make its way into a sample collection tube as expected. Projects officials say that, for now, they think the problem is more likely because of unforeseen properties of the rock rather than a problem with the sample collection mechanism. Perseverance is designed to collect about three dozen samples that will be returned to Earth by two future missions by NASA and ESA.