MER 2003/Athena Update Week Ending August 30, 2003

We’re starting to really put the RAT through its paces. We’ve tested
the RAT extensively, of course, but so far that’s been mostly by
itself on simple test stands, either at JPL or back at Honeybee
Robotics in New York, where the RAT was built. We’ve also tested the
Instrument Deployment Device (also known as the rover’s arm) quite a
bit. But until the last week or so, we had really never had the
chance to do a complete test in which we used a RAT on the end of an
arm to grind into a real rock.

Well, we finally did it, and it worked… at least so far. For our
first test, we mounted the RAT on the end of an arm and used it to
grind into some limestone. We don’t really expect to find limestone
on Mars, but it’s a nice soft rock that’s an easy one to start with.
Things worked great. We got a nice hole about 4 millimeters deep,
brushed free of dust so we could see it with all the other
instruments. It was a big confidence builder!

But that’s not enough. What the RAT really needs to be able to do is
grind into really hard, tough rock like basalt. We’ve done that with
a RAT on its own, but we still need to try it with a RAT on an arm.
So that’ll be our next test, and ó if it works ó it’ll be the
proof we need that the RAT and the arm will really work together
properly on Mars.