Category: Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Structure Components Functions

The design and engineering of the Perseverance Mars Rovers allow it to carry on the most challenging tasks on Mars. To build an ultra-detailed Perseverance Mars Rover replica, we need thoroughly understand the real one’s structure, components, and functions.

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Sample Handling System of Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover

Drills of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover

There are 3 types of drill bits that the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover‘s bit carousal carries. The first type is the coring bit, the second type is the regolith bit and the third type is the abrading drill bit – or the abrader. The three types of drill bits are interchangeable depending on what the target samples are or the purpose of the specific operation. There are 6 coring bits,1 regolith bit, and 2 abraders in the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover‘s bit carousal. In addition, there is one more launch abrading bit which is located in the Corer on the end of the turret assembly.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover‘s drills are designed to have a rotary percussive motion as an efficient way to extract scientifically selected rock and soil samples from the Martian surface. Our 1:2 Perseverance Mars Rover Replica‘s drills will simulate the rotary percussive motion, but the drills cannot actually drill and collect rock samples like the real Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover‘s drills.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover‘s coring drill bit has a height of 228 mm or 8.98 inches, and the diameter of each of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover‘s drills is 1 inch or 27mm. The drill bit’s body material is custom 465 stainless steel coated with titanium nitride. The coring bits collect coring samples – cylindrical-shaped rock samples and will preserve the stratigraphy layers as they are so that in the future if the samples are returned to Earth, scientists can study the stratigraphy of the collected Martian rocks. For our Mars Rover Replica, the coring drill bits will have a height of 114mm, and a diameter of 0.5 inches. The material for our Mars Rover Replica‘s coring drill bit will also be stainless steel but we might not replicate the titanium nitride coating.

Each sample core the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover collects has a length of 60mm or 2.4 inches, the sample core’s diameter is 0.5 inches or 13mm, and the Martian sample itself is around 10 to 15 grams every tube. For our 1:2 Perseverance Mars Rover Replica, the sample tubes will be empty, and you can put some rocks or sands in them for decoration.

Unlike the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover‘s coring drill bits, the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover‘s regolith drill bits, with a height of 185.2mm, or 7.29 inches, collect regolith, which means broken rock materials and dust, but the sealing, transferring, and storing processes are the same as the coring drill bits. For our Mars Rover Replica, the regolith drill bits will have a height of 92.6 mm or 3.645 inches.

Different from both the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover‘s coring drill bits and regolith drill bits, the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover‘s abrading drill bits don’t collect any samples. The abrader has a height of 130.7mm or 5.15 inches and its job is to abrade or scrape off the top layer of the rocks in order to expose the surface feature that is not exposed to weathering. Then the science instruments will study the exposed rocks and soils for scientific purposes. The two abraders are planned for 74 missions, and they have an optimized pattern design for the teeth so that when scaping the top layer off of the rocks, the exposed surface will be smooth, which is more convenient for the later analysis. Our Perseverance Mars Rover Replica‘s abrading drill bits will perfectly replicate the appearance structure of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover‘s abrading drill bits and our Perseverance Mars Rover Replica‘s abrading drill bits have a height of 65.35 mm, or 2.575 inches.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover‘s launch abrading bit has a height of 108.1mm, or 4.26 inches. The launch abrading bit is pre-installed into the Corer chuck at the center of the end of the turret. It provides a sealing cover for the Corer chuck, and additional abrading power if needed. Our Perseverance Mars Rover Replica‘s launch abrading bit will perfectly replicate the appearance structure of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover‘s launch abrading bit and our Perseverance Mars Rover Replica‘s launch abrading bit will have a height of 54.05 mm, or 2.13 inches.

Structurally, the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover‘s three types of bits have mostly the same features such as the percussion interface and bit sleeve. The coring bits and regolith bits will drill into the Martian surface and collect samples, so they have a sample tube interface for exchanging tubes. However, the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover‘s abraders don’t have the sample tube interface since they don’t collect actual samples. For the same reason, the coring bit and regolith bit can house a sample tube inside but the abrading bits don’t have this feature. Our 1:2 Perseverance Mars Rover Replica will perfectly replicate the drill bits’ appearance structure but they won’t have the actual functions that the real Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover‘s drills do.

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Sample Handling System of Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover

Sample Containers of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover

There are two types of sample tubes on the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover. The first type is the sample containers or the sample tubes, and the second type is the witness tubes, which are introduced in more detail in [Witness Tubes of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover].

There are a total of 43 sample tubes on the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover and 5 of them will be used as witness tubes so eventually, there will be 38 sample tubes with actual samples inside. These tubes will collect, seal and store samples of Martian rock cores, and regolith (broken rocks and dust). Each Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover‘s tube will contain a sample that is carefully and scientifically selected under different and diverse environmental conditions so that it can represent as much geologic diversity as possible of the Martian field site for future analysis. For our 1:2 Perseverance Mars Rover Replica, we will perfectly replicate the appearance and the number of the sample tubes.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover’s sample tubes are made of titanium. There are different coatings on the outer and internal surfaces of the sample tubes. Most of the outer coating is alumina and appears in the color white, but the top and bottom outer surfaces and the internal surface have a coating of nitrided, which appears in gold color. The purpose of the coating is for thermal control. Each of the tubes has a length of 142mm, or 5.59 inches without the seal, which will add 2mm, or 0.08 inches to the sample tube. The sample tube has a diameter of 23 mm or 0.9 inches. As for the sample tubes for our 1:2 Perseverance Mars Rover Replica, we might only use one material, but we will paint the same color as the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover’s sample tubes.

In order to maintain the cleanness of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover’s sample tubes, a fluid mechanical particle barrier glove is designed and attached to each of them. About this fluid mechanical particle barrier glove, we will replicate the appearance structure for our Mars Rover Replica but it won’t actually have the function to maintain the cleanness of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Replica’s sample tubes

After a sample is cashed and studied and carefully sealed, the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover‘s sample tubes will be left on the Martian surface – a surface that is well-identified for the future sample return mission. If the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover‘s samples are returned to Earth successfully one day, scientists can learn a great deal from them.

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Science Instrument of Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover

MOXIE of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Part 1

Mars’ atmosphere has around 96% carbon dioxide and there is only 0.13% oxygen. Therefore, it is not suitable for humans to breathe. To find out if it is possible for human exploration on Mars, one of the most important things is to figure out how to make oxygen, not only for humans to breathe but also for helping with burning rocket fuel. The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover‘s MOXIE (short for the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment) is the instrument that will make oxygen from Mars’ atmosphere. It is like an artificial plant, breathing in carbon dioxide and breathing out oxygen (also some byproducts such as carbon monoxide).

The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover‘s MOXIE instrument is located on the inside of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover‘s right front belly. It has a mass of 17.1 kg, but due to different gravitational forces between Earth and Mars, MOXIE weighs 37.7 lbs on Earth but 14.14 lbs on Mars. The Perseverance Mars Rover’s MOXIE is expected to operate its first mission within 30 sols after it lands on Mars and passes all the health checkups.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover‘s MOXIE is inside of the rover’s body, and you cannot see it from the outside, so our 1:2 Perseverance Mars Rover Replica might not replicate it, or we will replicate it after all the other components are completed. If we do replicate the PMars 2020 Perseverance rover‘s MOXIE instrument, our Mars Rover replica‘s MOXIE will not actually make oxygen, but the appearance structure will be replicated.

Interestingly, the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover‘s MOXIE has 2 microphones so we can hear it making oxygen on Earth. The reason for the microphones is because MOXIE runs by a motor. By listening to the motor running, engineers will know MOXIE is working. Even though our 1:2 Perseverance Mars Rover Replica might not replicate the MOXIE instrument, we may add a speaker inside of the Mars Rover Replica‘s body and make the motor running sound effects to simulate the MOXIE’s working sound.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover‘s MOXIE instrument only has a size of a car battery but once it is operating. If we replicate it on our Perseverance Mars Rover replica, it will be half the size of the real Mars 2020 Perseverance rover‘s MOXIE. When operating, the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover‘s MOXIE will use up to around 30% of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover‘s power, and the heat generated will be so hot that the scientists had to insulate it. Otherwise, the instrument on board or even the whole of Mars 2020 Perseverance rover will get damaged. However, how hot it will get or how much voltage will be used are still to be found out during real operations on Mars.

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Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Structure Components Functions Science Instrument of Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover

PIXL of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Part 1

The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover‘s PIXL is short for the Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry, and it is located on the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover‘s turret at the end of its robotic arm.

There are 3 main components of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover‘s PIXL: the sensor assembly, the body unit electronics (BUE), and the PXL calibration target. [PIXL of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Part 2] will go into details about them. The 1:2 Perseverance Mars Rover Replica we are building will also replicate the appearance structure of these three components.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover‘s PIXL is a micro-focus X-ray fluorescence spectrometer. It will shoot a 120 µm diameter X-ray beam to the targeted site and induce X-ray fluorescence on the rock surface. Then PIXL will measure the target surface’s chemical structure at a sub-millimeter level to analyze the detailed composition of the rock, and this can be done in just 10 seconds. The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover‘s PIXL exams the rock and soil autonomously without having to check with Earth each time it runs a scan, so it can record a hyperspectral map of thousands of measured points within hours. The elements that the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover‘s PIXL can detect are Na, Mg, Al, Si, P, S, Cl, K, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Br, Rb, Sr, Y, Ga, Ge, As, Zr, Rb, Sr, Y, and Zr. With this information, scientists will be able to search for evidence or signs of ancient Martian microbial life. The PIXL instrument for our 1:2 Perseverance Mars Rover Replica will not actually have these functions, but we will proportionally replicate it on our Mars Rover Replica‘s motorized robotic arm.

PIXL is put on the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover for 3 reasons. The first is to analyze the past chemical composition of the Martian terrain, if the planet was habitable, and if the rocks have the potential to store signs of life. The second reason is to find if there was ever life and if there is any potential for other types of lives. The third reason is to determine what samples are worth collecting and potentially returning to Earth.

There are small motors on the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover‘s PIXL, which makes it like a 6-legged robot. With many degrees of freedom, the X-ray beam can move very easily just like a human hand controls a laser pointer. Our Perseverance Mars Rover Replica will perfectly replicate the robotic legs so they will move like and provide the same mobility to the PIXL on our Mars Rover replica just like the real one on the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover.