I finally found out the other day I was going to be “published” in an esteemed scientific journal. No, not a medical one as I have an M.D. after my name but in one of my favorite reads: Aviation Week and Space Technology. No I don’t fly. Did for 125 hours worth but had to give that up after I went to college and had bum eyes anyways. Couldn’t do it for a living. (Soloed at 16 though.)
O.k. So it’s only a Letter to the Editor but I commented upon the sample receiver pack on the Perseverance mission that was expressed in a photograph that was in the magazine. I looked at it and thought oh my gosh, how are they going to prevent cross contamination of collected rock powders? It looked like even though NASA was intending to cache rock specimens for a later recovery mission, what prevents cross contamination of the samples since the rover will likely be going on different spots on Mars?
Sure, the robot can cap the tubes but what about blow back upon collection with the remaining open tubes? That specimen pack would have to survive the rigors of a rocket flight back to Earth if that future mission comes to fruition. What’s to prevent mixing?
There is a bunch of open tubes in the collection container, robotic arm drops some stuff in, and a puff goes out and lands in some of the other open tubes. The analytical chemistry machines of this day and age are incredibly accurate with sorting out “what’s the stuff in there” so if cross contamination occurs, could screw up the results.
Now AWST is a very reputable magazine and no doubt after they asked me for final permission to use my comments, they undoubtedly forwarded my concerns to NASA. I’m hoping they respond to assuage my concerns. AWST is good about that putting a reply in from the party concerned. (ie. NASA)
Kurt Savegnago
O.k. So it’s only a Letter to the Editor but I commented upon the sample receiver pack on the Perseverance mission that was expressed in a photograph that was in the magazine. I looked at it and thought oh my gosh, how are they going to prevent cross contamination of collected rock powders? It looked like even though NASA was intending to cache rock specimens for a later recovery mission, what prevents cross contamination of the samples since the rover will likely be going on different spots on Mars?
Sure, the robot can cap the tubes but what about blow back upon collection with the remaining open tubes? That specimen pack would have to survive the rigors of a rocket flight back to Earth if that future mission comes to fruition. What’s to prevent mixing?
There is a bunch of open tubes in the collection container, robotic arm drops some stuff in, and a puff goes out and lands in some of the other open tubes. The analytical chemistry machines of this day and age are incredibly accurate with sorting out “what’s the stuff in there” so if cross contamination occurs, could screw up the results.
Now AWST is a very reputable magazine and no doubt after they asked me for final permission to use my comments, they undoubtedly forwarded my concerns to NASA. I’m hoping they respond to assuage my concerns. AWST is good about that putting a reply in from the party concerned. (ie. NASA)
Kurt Savegnago
