It seems that the American Mars rover Perseverance has managed to collect stone dust. A photo shows the drilled grit, reports space agency NASA.
The first attempt to collect a rock monster failed in early August. At that time, nothing ended up in the tube intended for the storage of the grit. This may have had to do with the type of rock being drilled in at the time. The material probably disintegrated into dust that could not be collected.
During the new drilling attempt, in another rock in the Jezero crater, grit did end up in the collection tube. This can be seen in a photo sent by the rover. It is not yet completely sure whether it was successful, because on a second photo, taken a little later, the grit is no longer visible.
This may be because Perseverance made the tube vibrate a bit to clean the instrument. The grit may have fallen deeper into the tube and is no longer visible, partly due to the poor incidence of light. New photos with a better incidence of light should provide certainty. They will be sent tomorrow.
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