Perseverance Rover's Abrading Bit

This image shows the abrading bit used by NASA's Perseverance to get beneath the surface of Mars rocks. It was acquired on Aug. 2, 2021, the 160th Martian day, or sol, of the mission, by the rover's Mastcam-Z imager.

Mars rocks can be weathered and covered in dust, obscuring important details about their composition and history. The rover's abrader is the golden-colored disk with the three parallel lines of different lengths, arranged asymmetrically, in the center of the image. When the rover's drill spins and hammers with an abrading bit, that tooth pattern creates crisscrossing, well-distributed impacts in the rock. This chips away the surface and makes a smooth, flat patch of fresh rock about 2 inches (5 centimeters) in diameter.

Arizona State University leads the operations of the Mastcam-Z instrument, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego on the design, fabrication, testing, and operation of the cameras, and in collaboration with the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen on the design, fabrication, and testing of the calibration targets.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by Caltech, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.

For more about Perseverance:
mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/