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“We must walk without rhythm," Paul said and he called up memory of men walking the
sand . . . both prescient memory and real memory. "Watch how I do it," he said. "This is how Fremen
walk the sand." In Frank Herbert’s 1965 epic sci-fi novel Dune, the deserts of Arrakis were
a dangerous place. Blisteringly hot during the day, covering almost the entire planet,
and hiding terrifying, monstrous worms that would swallow you up at a moment’s notice.
Only by traversing it with erratic movement could you hope to make it across safely,
and only by understanding it could you expect to survive. This would prove very relevant to
the Perseverance Rover as it moved to enter the next phase of its mission. Because although Mars
is not quite Arrakis, there are many similarities. Mars too is a place of rock and sand. Beneath its
surface may even lurk signs of alien life, although more likely fossilised than alive.
And just like Paul Atreides, Perseverence would need to move just right to prevent the desert
sands from encroaching on its mission in a way that would spell disaster like never before.
I’m Alex McColgan, and you’re watching Astrum.
Join with me as we examine the months of September 2021 to January 2022 in Perseverence’s journey,
in the 4th episode of this series. And today, we will be looking at Perseverence’s trip
into truly dangerous terrain - Séítah. A place which means “Among the Sands”.
Perseverance and NASA were celebrating their first successful collection of a rock sample on Mars.
The rover had come to Mars for the express purpose of finding samples of alien life beneath
the planet’s surface, trapped in the rocks that made up Mars. However, this task had not proved
easy, and it was only after the better part of a year that Perseverance managed to successfully
collect that first vital sample. This had partly been because it had been helping to test its
companion, the smaller drone Ingenuity. It was the first helicopter on Mars - a drone that would
prove invaluable to its mission going forward. And it was partly because of the pitfalls of Martian
geology, as the first core it tried to collect had crumbled to dust before it could be captured.
Thankfully, the second core was a lot more fruitful, and Perseverance was able to fill
the first of its 30 different sample tubes. This was swiftly followed by a third and fourth core,
both taken from the rock named “Rochette” in early September.
At that point, sadly, it had to take a pause for solar conjunction. Due to the arrangement
of our solar system, Mars and Earth do not always have line of sight on each other. Sometimes they
are on opposite sides of the solar system. This increases the lag time it takes for NASA to send
and receive messages from Perseverance, but that is not the worst problem. When Mars and Earth are
perfectly opposite to each other, communication between the planets becomes completely impossible,
for one simple reason – the Sun. No radio signal can penetrate this cosmological giant.
As such, there was little scientists could do but wait for these orbital bodies to move apart.
Perseverance has advanced AI on board, but still needs to check in with NASA
from time to time to plan its route, update its mission, and report back its findings.
So it wasn’t until early November 2021 that things could really get going again.
But NASA was not idle during this solar conjunction. By the time Perseverance
was powered up again, the NASA scientists had already thoroughly worked out its next objective.
In Jezero crater, there is a dune field known as Séítah.
In amongst these dunes there is a series of outcroppings that were of particular interest to
Perseverance’s mission, due to the many different layers of exposed rock they gave access to. These
different layers likely represented different geological eras, which would give scientists the
clearest picture of the history of Jezero, as well as giving them an opportunity to find life itself.
Outcroppings are of particular interest because Perseverance’s drilling equipment only allows
it to dig several centimetres deep. If it wasn’t for outcroppings where erosion had exposed these
layers to the Martian atmosphere, Perseverance would not have access to them. However, sand
dunes are of particular danger to a rover like Perseverance. With help an entire solar system
away, if Perseverance was to start wheel-spinning in a section of particularly lose dune,
it would likely spell the end of its mission, much like it did for the Spirit rover in 2009. As such,
Perseverance’s trusty sidekick Ingenuity was sent in to conduct some preliminary reconnaissance.
If it could find a route through the sand dunes that looked safe, Perseverance could get its
sample tubes to the vital outcroppings of Séítah. Ingenuity began its scouting before the solar
conjunction, and flew for several flights from September through to December. Flying at a height
of 10 metres, these reconnaissance expeditions allowed scientists to pick out the perfect route.
Perseverance set off in early November 2021, beginning its exploration of the dunes. It
picked its way carefully, being sure not to travel too fast, in case it fell into
any unforeseen sand-trap. It moved between dunes that were a metre high, finding the flattest path.
But thankfully, Ingenuity had led it true. Perseverance was able to make it to the protruding
rock known as Brac. Now that it had its technique down, Perseverance quickly was able to obtain
new samples. Deciding to call the first empty sample container at Brac an “atmosphere sample”,
these next two samples were officially Perseverance’s 5th and 6th sample tubes,
and their 3rd and 4th rock samples. From these accumulated samples, scientists were able to
make an unexpected discovery. These were not sedimentary rocks, as had first been anticipated.
Instead, Perseverance had discovered the igneous rock, Olivine. Olivine is a type of rock that can
actually be found here on Earth, for instance in parts of Australia. Unlike sedimentary rocks,
which are made by particles of sand and other detritus slowly accumulating on top of each
other over time, an igneous rock like Olivine is formed by the cooling of magma. As such,
it seems that at one time or another Jezero crater must have been witness to some volcanic activity.
While this might initially seem to be bad news - you might rightly conclude that not much life
could be found in magma - scientists could discern signs of water erosion on the rocks.
The ridges at the ends of the crater showed signs of water motion. Whatever volcanic activity had
happened here, the water that created Jezero’s delta must have come after it had already cooled.
As such, the presence of igneous rock was actually good news. Igneous rock is usually
very high in minerals – this is why the areas around volcanoes are so fertile.
The presence of water and high mineral count rocks would have been perfect conditions for life.
All in all, Perseverance’s mission seemed to be going well. But Mars was not done with it. The
desert does not give up its prey quite so easily. On Wednesday the 29th of December, on the return
journey out of Seitah, Perseverance stopped to take another sample from another rock outcropping
known as Issole, specifically from a small stone known as Roubion. Initially, things seemed to go
well. Perseverance cored its target rock with no issue. It placed its core in a test tube.
But when it came to transferring the test tube into the bit carousel on the rover’s chassis,
it hit unexpected resistance. Something was blocking the tube from entering the carousel.
Perseverance immediately stopped its process when it detected the anomaly,
and sent a request to NASA asking what it should do next. Through week-long exchanges,
NASA was able to use Perseverance’s cameras to peer inside the carousel. Staring back at them
were 4 small pebbles. Now this might not seem a big deal, but pebbles that stopped samples from
being stored inside the rover would put a halt to Perseverance’s entire sample-collection mission.
It was likely that these rocks had somehow fallen out of the tube during that specific
sample collection, possibly once again because of the unexpectedly crumbly nature of Martian rocks.
Rocks falling apart had already cost Perseverance one sample. Now, they might spell the end for the
whole mission. This is crazy to think about if you imagine a human standing next to the rover,
who could easily flick the rocks away. It’s something so simple for us
but next to impossible for a robot not designed for it. But the Perseverance team had a plan
for situations like this. And carefully, the rover began to enact it. Firstly, Perseverance
started by taking photos of the ground below it. It wanted to see what was there already,
so that once all the pebbles were spilled out onto the floor, scientists could count the new
arrivals and make sure they matched up with what had previously been seen inside the carousel.
Secondly, it did something it never had been designed to do – it emptied out its core sample
tube onto the floor. It must have been with regret that this was done. However, it was
important to know how much was left in the tube to see how much was likely in the carousel. Also,
this would allow a fresh Issole sample to be taken later, maximising its sample space efficiency.
Thirdly, Perseverance began to do the only remaining thing it could do. It started to wiggle.
By rotating its carousel, it was able to dislodge two of the 4 offending pebbles right then and
there. By double checking the floor afterwards, scientists were able to detect both pebbles,
now no longer along for the ride. But this still left two pebbles remaining, and these were
proving to be stubborn – not falling out with the carousel’s rotation. So, Perseverance took things
up a notch. It began driving away, searching for a spot where the slope was steeper. The plan was to
position Perseverance at an angle, leaning forward so that gravity could start to pull on the last
two pebbles. Its sturdy base meant that this could be done with relative safety, although tipping
over would have been a disaster. So, scientists would be careful not to pick a place that was
too steep. A suitable location was just a short 5 metres away. Perseverance drove over there, and
arrived at its location only to make a surprising discovery. The other two rocks had vanished!
Initially cautious, and then elated, the NASA team deduced that the rumbling of Perseverance across
the Seitah sands had caused the rocks to shift and then fall out. They made sure to carefully
test their equipment, making sure that the tubes could be correctly docked again, and only once
everything was proven to be functional, did they claim success. Perseverance was ready to go again!
This may seem like a short drama, but my telling of the story might have been misleading. It
was the 29th of December that Perseverance first picked up these stowaways. It was only on the 27th
of January 2022 – an entire month later - that the rocks were completely confirmed to be gone.
This is because when you’ve spent millions of dollars getting a piece of hardware to another
planet, “care” is always the watchword of the day. Although it sometimes takes weeks to plot
out how to overcome a challenge, it’s usually worth it for the longevity of the mission.
Thanks to some careful decision-making, and moving correctly across the desert,
Perseverance’s mission could now continue. Having successfully collected its samples
and overcome yet another challenge, it had made its way out from Among the Sands.
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