Thank you all for the great feedback… And those two, bouncing off each other the way they did, a great example of scientific deduction
I only read the other replies after I posted my answer (some good stuff there :) It’s great when everyone chips in, shows we have an active community :) Mine was a stock answer that I posted to Reddit several years ago (not long after Perseverance landed IIRC).
It’s a huge pity the team on M2020 have not followed in the footsteps of MSL for posting regular blogs. I’d love to hear that the team had used the Fiducial Markers at some point in the mission. We may even see them in use soon on MSL if the drill checks show any sort of damage to the drill, as the original method of changing a drill bit probably wont work as well as designed / planned. We can see the bit boxes were designed to be used with the drill stabilizers for alignment. Those stabilizers will hardly come into play now (since the feed motor brake failed / locked), so they are going to have to align the arm very carefully to capture a new DBA. The fiducials could really help…
I only read the other replies after I posted my answer (some good stuff there :) It’s great when everyone chips in, shows we have an active community :) Mine was a stock answer that I posted to Reddit several years ago (not long after Perseverance landed IIRC).
It’s a huge pity the team on M2020 have not followed in the footsteps of MSL for posting regular blogs. I’d love to hear that the team had used the Fiducial Markers at some point in the mission. We may even see them in use soon on MSL if the drill checks show any sort of damage to the drill, as the original method of changing a drill bit probably wont work as well as designed / planned. We can see the bit boxes were designed to be used with the drill stabilizers for alignment. Those stabilizers will hardly come into play now (since the feed motor brake failed / locked), so they are going to have to align the arm very carefully to capture a new DBA. The fiducials could really help…