21
1444 - Failed coring attempt. This fractured core was lost before it could be transferred to the cache inside the rover
(lemmy.world)
Site 69.2124, adjacent to the recent successful core
NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
It looks fractured, but whole
It was but a short time later it is missing from the tube when imaged again with the same camera, and it was also seen to be missing from the tube when it was imaged inside the rover at the sample measuring station by CacheCam a short time later.
It's a probably a delay rather than a problem, as the images we have so far shows they did not cap / seal the empty tube. Empty tubes that have not been capped can be reused many times providing they are not damaged, and this one was apparently not damaged, they just lost the fractured core.
I guess we'll see them try again to obtain a core at this same location, or move on to a less fractured piece of bedrock that may not break up so easily.
Watch this space :)
This is the second coring attempt at the very same target... with one sample already successfully extracted at this very spot.
They took only one sample at the leopard spots/Bright Angel/Neretva Vallis/potential biosignature site, but two here.
2025 is wild.
Wild for sure, and now they have driven away with that empty tube.... Hard to understand what's going on