Mars rover Perseverance collects new sample after clearing pebble clog

NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance has snagged a sample to replace the material that got stuck in its throat. Perseverance drilled into a rock called Issole on Dec. 29, 2021, collecting its sixth cored sample since touching down inside the Red Planet’s Jezero Crater last February. But the car-sized rover couldn’t seal up the titanium tube … Read more

Perseverance rover does the ‘twist’ on Mars to shake loose stuck rocks

A quick twist and shake relieved NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars of the last two pebbles clogging its sampling system.  The trouble began during the rover’s sixth Red Planet rock sample, on Dec. 29. Pebbles got stuck along the rover’s bit carousel, which passes rock samples into the spacecraft’s internal handling system for processing. After … Read more

Watch Perseverance Mars rover spit out a stuck rock after choking on sample

NASA’s Perseverance rover managed to spit out pieces of rock that had been blocking its Mars-sampling gear since late December.  Although the un-choking procedure hadn’t been previously tested, the engineers on the Mars mission found it was rather “straightforward,” the team said in an earlier blog post. It involved pointing the drill containing a clogged … Read more

Yutu-2: China’s rover finds sticky soil on the far side of the moon

We haven’t been able to take a close-up look at the far side of the moon until now, and the discoveries being made by the Yutu-2 rover might prove important for future missions 19 January 2022 By Alex Wilkins A photo of the Yutu-2 moon rover, taken by the Chang’e-4 lunar probe AFP The first … Read more

The Mars rover Perseverance has pebbles stuck in its drill. NASA has a plan to fix it.

NASA’s Perseverance rover will dump its latest Mars sample to unclog pebbles from its drill.  Perseverance mission managers made the unexpected announcement that they had to dump out Percy’s latest sample via a blog post on Friday (Jan. 14). The team even shared in the post that they never thought they would have to do … Read more

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Drilled Holes Into Mars, And Found Something Very Strange

As it’s the foundation for all life on Earth, discovering carbon on other planets always gets scientists excited – and the Curiosity Rover on Mars has found an unusual mix of the chemical element that could hypothetically point to the existence of alien life.   That’s by no means certain, but it’s a possibility. It’s … Read more

Possible sign of Mars life? Curiosity rover finds ‘tantalizing’ Red Planet organics

NASA’s Curiosity rover has found some interesting organic compounds on the Red Planet that could be signs of ancient Mars life, but it will take a lot more work to test that hypothesis. Some of the powdered rock samples that Curiosity has collected over the years contain organics rich in a type of carbon that … Read more

Mars rover detects carbon signature that hints at past life source | Science

Since 2012, NASA’s Curiosity rover has trundled across Mars, drilling into rocks and running the grit through a sophisticated onboard chemistry lab, aiming to tease out evidence for life. Today, a team of rover scientists announced an intriguing signal, one that may or may not be evidence of past life, but is, at the very … Read more

Perseverance Has Run Into a Problem on Mars: Pebbles

A small pile of pebbles is clogging up the Perseverance Mars rover’s operations.   The rover, which is collecting rock samples for eventual return to Earth, began to struggle on Dec. 29, after extracting a core from a rock the mission team nicknamed “Issole.”   According to a NASA blog, the problem occurred in the device that transfers … Read more

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Chokes on Mars Pebbles While Collecting a Rock Sample

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has some rocks stuck in its throat. Perseverance drilled and collected its sixth Red Planet rock sample late last month, but the car-sized rover hasn’t been able to seal up the titanium tube containing the material yet. “I recently captured my sixth rock core and have encountered a new challenge. Seems some … Read more