ＮＡＳＡ火星探査車、岩石採取を開始　生命の痕跡求め

【ワシントンＡＦＰ＝時事】火星に着陸した米航空宇宙局（ＮＡＳＡ）の探査車「パーシビアランス」が、岩石試料採取のための地表掘削作業を開始した。試料は将来のミッションで回収され、地球で分析される。（写真は米航空宇宙局＜ＮＡＳＡ＞の火星探査車「パーシビアランス」が地表に開けた穴と、同探査車の影）
　ＮＡＳＡは６日、パーシビアランスのそばに開けられた小さな穴の画像を公開した。掘削は約１１日間を予定している試料採取作業の第一段階。太古の湖底の沈殿物に残されている可能性がある微生物の痕跡を探すのが目的だ。
　また、火星の地質について理解が深まることも期待されている。
　大型のファミリーカーほどの大きさのパーシビアランスは１年前、米フロリダ州から打ち上げられ、今年２月１８日にジェゼロクレーターに着陸した。ジェゼロクレーターには３５億年前に深い湖があり、地球外生命体が生存できる環境があった可能性があると考えられている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/08/10-10:47）

NASA's Perseverance drilled into the surface of Mars but failed in its initial attempt to collect rock samples that would be picked up by future missions for analysis by scientists on Earth.
The US space agency published images Friday of a small mound with a hole in its center next to the rover -- the first ever dug into the Red Planet by a robot.
But data sent to Earth by the rover after its first attempt to collect a sample and seal it in a tube indicated no rock had been gathered.
While this is not the 'hole-in-one' we hoped for, there is always risk with breaking new ground, said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's science mission directorate, in a statement.
I'm confident we have the right team working this, and we will persevere toward a solution to ensure future success.
The drill hole is the first step of a sampling process that is expected to take about 11 days, with the aim of looking for signs of ancient microbial life that may have been preserved in ancient lakebed deposits.
Scientists also hope to better understand Martian geology.
The mission took off from Florida a little over a year ago and Perseverance, which is the size of a large family car, landed on February 18 in the Jezero Crater.
Scientists believe the crater contained a deep lake 3.5 billion years ago, where the conditions may have been able to support extraterrestrial life.
NASA plans a mission to bring around 30 samples back to Earth in the 2030s, to be analyzed by instruments that are much more sophisticated than those that can be brought to Mars at present.