Engineers are trying to resolve an issue with one of the rover's instruments, which lets Perseverance shoot lasers at rocks.
The Perseverance rover is at risk of losing its ability to zap Martian rocks with lasers after one of its instruments began malfunctioning last month. One of two covers on SHERLOC, an instrument fitted on the end of the robot’s arm to look for microscopic clues on rocks, is partially open, interfering with the rover’s ability to collect scientific data, NASA announced on Tuesday.
SHERLOC, short for Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals, uses cameras, a spectrometer, and a laser to collect evidence from Mars’ rocks. It is one of seven instruments on the Mars rover, and together with its sidekick WATSON , the pair have been zapping rocks with lasers to detect minerals in microscopic rocks.
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