BULLETIN

Sample slip-up for Mars rover Perseverance

Rock specimen appears to have crumbled when it was picked up

The first attempt to collect a sample from the surface of Mars using NASA’s Perseverance rover ended in failure on 6 August. Fortunately, the fault seems to lie with the rock, not the rover, meaning Perseverance is still on track to complete its main mission of creating caches of samples for a future spacecraft to return to Earth.

The rover made its first attempt at acquiring a sample after 164 sols (Martian days) on the surface. Initial feedback showed everything had gone to plan – the drill reached a depth of 7cm and the sample tube was successfully stored. When the team received a more detailed update six hours later, however, things didn’t look as optimistic.

“Within minutes, the team noted that the volume probe