After six months of intensive troubleshooting, Nasa’s Perseverance Mars rover has successfully revived its Sherloc (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals) instrument.
This critical tool, designed to search for signs of ancient microbial life, encountered a malfunction in January that rendered it inoperative. However, engineers at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California confirmed on June 17 that Sherloc is back online and operational.
The issue began on January 6 when a movable lens cover, meant to protect Sherloc’s spectrometer and one of its cameras from dust, became stuck.
This malfunction was traced to a small motor responsible for moving the lens cover and adjusting the focus for the spectrometer and the Autofocus and Context Imager (ACI) camera.
The team at JPL embarked on a meticulous process to diagnose and resolve the problem, utilizing a duplicate Sherloc instrument on Earth for testing potential solutions.
The recovery efforts included heating the motor, rotating the instrument using the rover’s robotic arm, and even using the rover’s percussive drill to jostle the mechanism.
By March 3, images from Perseverance showed that the ACI cover had opened more than 180 degrees, clearing the imager’s field of view. However, the team still needed to address the focus issue to ensure Sherloc could collect clear images and strong spectral signals.
To overcome the focus challenge, the team used the rover’s robotic arm to make precise adjustments in the distance between Sherloc and its targets. This approach allowed them to determine the optimal distance for data collection, which was found to be about 40 millimeters. By May 20, the ACI had successfully focused on a Martian rock target, and by June 17, the spectrometer was confirmed to be functional.
“Six months of running diagnostics, testing, imagery and data analysis, troubleshooting, and retesting couldn’t come with a better conclusion,” said Sherloc principal investigator Kevin Hand of JPL.
With Sherloc back in action, Perseverance can continue its mission to explore the Jezero Crater and search for evidence of ancient microbial life.
Perseverance is currently in the later stages of its fourth science campaign, investigating carbonate and olivine deposits in the “Margin Unit” along the crater’s rim. These findings could provide crucial insights into Mars’ watery past and its potential to have supported life billions of years ago.
Shambhu Kumar is a science communicator, making complex scientific topics accessible to all. His articles explore breakthroughs in various scientific disciplines, from space exploration to cutting-edge research.
