Team Assessing SHERLOC Instrument on NASA’s Perseverance Rover [updated]

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Team Assessing SHERLOC Instrument on NASA’s Perseverance Rover

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NASA’s Perseverance puts its robotic arm to work around a rocky outcrop called “Skinner Ridge” in a set of images captured in June and July 2022 by the rover’s Mastcam-Z camera system. SHERLOC is mounted on the end of the arm.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

Engineers are working to stabilize a dust cover on one of the science instrument’s cameras.

Data and imagery from NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover indicate one of two covers that keep dust from accumulating on the optics of the SHERLOC instrument remains partially open. In this position, the cover interferes with science data collection operations. Mounted on the rover’s robotic arm, SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals) uses cameras, a spectrometer, and a laser to search for organic compounds and minerals that have been altered in watery environments and may be signs of past microbial life.

Read More: ➡️ NASA

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Detective Work Enables Perseverance Team to Revive SHERLOC Instrument

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After six months of effort, an instrument that helps the Mars rover look for potential signs of ancient microbial life has come back online.

The SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals) instrument aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has analyzed a rock target with its spectrometer and camera for the first time since encountering an issue this past January. The instrument plays a key role in the mission’s search for signs of ancient microbial life on Mars. Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California confirmed on June 17 that the instrument succeeded in collecting data.

Read More: ➡️ NASA