NASA has successfully revived a key instrument of the Perseverance rover on Mars. The Sherloc (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals) instrument, designed to search for signs of ancient microbial life on Mars, had been out of operation since January due to a malfunction.

The problem began on January 6 when a movable lens cover, meant to protect Sherloc’s spectrometer and one of its cameras from dust, got stuck. This instrument uses two cameras and a spectrometer and is located at the end of the rover's movable arm.

A lens cover on my SHERLOC instrument got stuck a while back, preventing me from collecting certain types of data that help me look for potential signs of ancient microbial life. But thanks to my ingenious team my instrument is operational again! https://t.co/w4xff4WlZS pic.twitter.com/HeJGBpNSBT — NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) June 26, 2024

According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which operates the Perseverance rover, the malfunction was traced to a small motor that moves the lens cover and adjusts the focus for the spectrometer and the Autofocus and Context Imager (ACI) camera.

Engineers at JPL resorted to an ingenious process to diagnose and fix the issue. They used a duplicate Sherloc instrument on Earth to test potential solutions.

The recovery efforts involved heating the motor, rotating the instrument using the rover’s robotic arm, and even using the rover’s percussive drill to open the lens cover.

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 NASA team still needed to address the focus issue to ensure Sherloc could collect clear images and strong spectral signals.

Since they couldn’t adjust the focus of the instrument’s optics, they relied on the rover’s robotic arm to make minute adjustments in the distance between Sherloc and its target.

"After testing first on Earth and then on Mars, we figured out the best distance for the robotic arm to place Sherloc is about 40 millimeters or 1.58 inches. At that distance, the data we collect should be as good as ever," said Kyle Uckert, Sherloc deputy principal investigator at JPL.

By May 20, the ACI had successfully focused on a Martian rock target, and by June 17, the spectrometer was confirmed to be functional.

With this hurdle past Perseverance, it has resumed investigating an area in the Jezero crater with potential evidence of carbonate and olivine deposits which might have formed underwater.

(Image: NASA/JPL)