Summary Draft 2 of Perseverance's Robotic Arm

 Perseverance’s Robotic Arm Summary


The webpage “Robotic Arm” (NASA, n.d.) introduces Mars' Perseverance’s robotic arm. The robotic arm collects rock samples and stores them for analysis. The Perseverance’s robotic arm consists of scientific cameras, a drill, Gaseous Dust Rem

oval Tool (GDRT), five degrees of freedom rotary actuators and a ground contact sensor. 


There are three scientific cameras, WATSON, SHERLOC and PIXL. As mentioned in the webpage “Watson” (NASA, n.d.), WATSON is a color camera used to take zoomed in pictures of targets of interest that contain signs of microbial life searched by SHERLOC. PIXL functions similarly to SHERLOC. However, it is able to identify chemical elements at a miniscule level. The rover's drill penetrates into the Martian surface to collect and store rock samples according to “Robotic Arm” (NASA, n.d.). The GDRT  then uses nitrogen gas to reveal the inner layer of the rock for analysis (Brockie, 2021).The five degrees of freedom rotary actuators allow the robotic arm to move in five different axes. The ground contact sensor sends a signal to the robotic arm to stop its movement to prevent it from touching the ground (Robotic Arm, n.d.).


References:

Nasa. (n.d.) Robotic Arm

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/arm/


Nasa. (n.d.) Watson https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/cameras/#WATSON


Brockie, I.(2021) Why and How Perseverance Abrades Rocks. NASA.

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/status/327/why-and-how-perseverance-abrades-rocks/

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