After two previously unsuccessful attempts by Perseverance to collect core samples at its current location on the upper part of the fan deposits, the rover collected its twentieth sample today, on...
After two previously unsuccessful attempts by Perseverance to collect core samples at its current location on the upper part of the fan deposits, the rover collected its twentieth sample today, on Sol 832 of its mission. The previous attempts to collect a core sample at this location were unsuccessful due to how loosely the rock at this location is held together - As the previous samples were collected, they crumbled, resulting it either too small of a sample or no sample whatsoever. This latest attempt however was successful, resulting in the twentieth sample to date.
In addition to this NASA blog entry, their summary site for all samples collected to date has been updated - The site shows photographs of where the sample was taken as well as summary details for each sample including the date collected, where the sample is located currently (on the rover or at the 'sample depot'), what type of sample was collected and, if applicable, what type of rock was collected:
After two previously unsuccessful attempts by Perseverance to collect core samples at its current location on the upper part of the fan deposits, the rover collected its twentieth sample today, on Sol 832 of its mission. The previous attempts to collect a core sample at this location were unsuccessful due to how loosely the rock at this location is held together - As the previous samples were collected, they crumbled, resulting it either too small of a sample or no sample whatsoever. This latest attempt however was successful, resulting in the twentieth sample to date.
In addition to this NASA blog entry, their summary site for all samples collected to date has been updated - The site shows photographs of where the sample was taken as well as summary details for each sample including the date collected, where the sample is located currently (on the rover or at the 'sample depot'), what type of sample was collected and, if applicable, what type of rock was collected:
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars-rock-samples/#20
NASA is seriously good at public outreach. Making picking up a piece of rock interesting reading is quite the feat.