Three sols after the first (messy, unsuccessful) attempt to abrade another rock in this clay-bearing region of the crater rim, Percy has made a second attempt, less than a metre away.
This target seems not to have fractured and broken as quickly and easily as the previous stuff, but this latest attempt ended after only 13 minutes - shorter than the usual 15-25 minutes required at other abrasion sites, but longer than the previous one, which ended after only 10 minutes. I’m wondering if the rover was programmed to use less force with this abrasion; if so, the results so far are not encouraging.
Mars is hard. Even when it’s not.
Not looking good. Sol 1548 NavCam tile (processed (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Third time’s a charm? Or time to move on? I’d say go for it again
Nice animation :) Definitely an improvement on the earlier attempt, we see still see some some fracturing, but a lot less movement (side-to-side) movement of the drill (maybe more down-force on the support pillars?). We’ll have to wait for the post abrading images after they move the turret away from the site so see what they have achieved. Whatever the results of this abrasion the fact that it readily breaks up, attempts to retain a core will likely be difficult.