As we know, the perseverance of the NASA rover continues its mission on Mars. He explores the landscape of the planet, assesses his natural resources and collects samples of Martian rocks and atmosphere, among other tasks.
Perseverance Rover. Credits: NASA
Perseverance is equipped with a soil samples collection and storage system, which uses rotary percussion drilling technology. At the end of the 2m robotic arm of the rover is a rotary percussion forest and a hollow drilling for the drilling and sampling of simultaneous surface. Perseverance is also equipped with 43 titanium tubes designed to store samples, including five empty for purity control purposes.
The collection of floor samples takes place in the Jezero crater on Mars. Billions of years ago, this place was a lake, with a river flowing in the crater. The river brought sediments and formed a steeple delta in the shape of a fan. It is assumed that precious information on ancient Martian biology can be extracted from rock deposits found here.
Jezero crater. Credits: NASA
Perseverance loses in the selected sample, extracting from materials, places the sample in a container and seals it safely. The rover collects two samples of each type of rock. The idea is to leave a sample on board and throw the other for storage in locations specially marked in the three fork zone inside the Jezero crater. This will serve as backup storage in case something happens at the rover and that he is unable to deliver the containers.
The sample container itself is a 15.24 cm (6 inches) tight-up titanium tube. The recovery of each container from inside the perseverance takes more than an hour, after which the rover carefully deposits the container in the sample storage area on Mars.
A sample withdrawn from the igneous rock near the perseverance landing area. Credits: NASA
NASA has a website For the collection of samples, which displays the process of collecting materials and provides detailed information on each sample.
Martian rock samples collected by the Rover Perseverance. Credits: NASA
The contact details of each deposit point are recorded so that perseverance can return to them if necessary. The samples are stored in the open air, spaced with each other. The placement points were specifically chosen to allow easy recovery by the Rover robotic arm or by a future mission, potentially by helicopters, in case the rover dysfunction.
Ten samples of tubes left for the return campaign for Mars samples. Credits: NASA
The return samples from March to Earth are considered the most complex campaign of robotic spatial exploration ever undertaken. The Fetch Rover sample, developed as a joint mission from the European Space Agency (ESA) and Roscosmos, was intended to be part of this campaign. However, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia has led to the cancellation of the program. ESA refused to launch the project on a Soyuz rocket. The mission was suspended. Nevertheless, the underlying technology remains crucial for the return campaign of the Mars sample.
Fetch Rover sample. Credits: ESA
Laura Bielenberg, a ESA Trainee graduate, works on an experimental configuration called Rabbit (Ras Bread Boarding Inter House Testbed). Here, an exact replica of the collection system which was supposed to be part of the ESA Fetch Rover sample is being reproduced. The sample transfer arm is still necessary to load the titanium tubes with Martian samples and transport them to the earth. ESA's robotic arm will recover them from the Rover of Perseverance and, perhaps, Recovery helicopter samples as a backup.
The work is underway on the Mars Yard test site, which is part of the ESA planetary robotics laboratory in ESA Estec Technical center in Noordwijk, Netherlands. Here, the Martian rocky landscape is recreated with precision.
Mars Yard at the ESA technical center in the Netherlands. Credits: ESA
Laura leaves copies of titanium tubes for samples on the surface of the test site near the metal structure with the robotic arm and explores the strategies for their collection, from autonomous detection to the estimation of the position of the sample tubes on Mars.
To detect tubes and estimate their position and orientation, the team of scientists not only uses cameras and sensors, but also neural networks. The algorithm of the neural network was developed in collaboration with Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium.
The configuration of the collection of tubes is equipped with a navigation camera installed on the top of the structure. The neural network receives images from this camera and is looking for titanium tubes. It also identifies the points of the image to assess the position of the tube on the surface.
Test of tube collection strategies for Mars. Credits: ESA
The team tried to recreate the Martian environment, simulating similar lighting and landscape conditions. A direct and indirect lighting mixture has been designed and the imitation of different types of terrain was made by combining sand, stones and stones. All these measures have been taken to improve the quality of the training of the neural network.
The aim of the mission is to deliver mars samples to the earth. The data obtained from these samples and the technologies developed as part of the March exploration programs will one day help humanity to untangle the mysteries of the red planet.
