Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Not-the-best-name t1_j6lzy3x wrote

Reply to comment by trimeta in Perseverance Mars rover drops 10th sample, completing depot by IslandChillin

Simply because we don't know how long perseverance would still be working to hand over the samples.

And it's not dropping them along a path. This is called a depot, it's one place where it is placing a bunch.

14

trimeta t1_j6m1rsj wrote

I wasn't necessarily assuming that Perseverance would be functional to hand the samples over; rather, I thought it might intentionally store the onboard samples in a fashion where another rover could easily grab them without direct intervention from Perseverance itself. Something like a tray or rack of tubes with each sample having exposed grips.

The comments made by others suggest that Perseverance does have onboard samples like this, and the dropped ones are secondary (in case something happens to Perseverance to destroy all its onboard samples -- I don't know, catastrophic damage to its radioisotope power generator? Or perhaps more realistically, it gets stuck in a sandy area which is too dangerous for other rovers to approach without also getting stuck), which makes more sense.

6

Not-the-best-name t1_j6m8cv4 wrote

I just love the type of thinking required to design this mission.

Get stuck in sand on a safari - no issue - get stuck in sand on Mars - two decades of planning between the smartest minds of many national space agencies.

3