Perseverance Rover can move 200 meters a day, but scientists need to do tests and safety checks before proceeding.
NASA’s Mars Rover Perseverance took its first, short ride on the surface of the red planet, two weeks after the beautiful touch of the robotics laboratory on the floor of a huge crater, mission managers said Friday.
The Perseverance Rover on Thursday, two weeks after landing on the Red Planet, ventured for the first time from its landing position to look for signs of past life.
Following the instructions of mission managers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles, the rover rolled four meters (13.1 feet) forward, turned about 150 degrees to the left, and then another 2.5 meters (8.2 feet). ) drove backwards for a total of 6.5 meters (21.3 feet) during its half-hour test inside the Jezero crater, where an old, long-vanished lake bed and river delta are located on Mars.
“It went incredibly well,” said Anais Zarifian, a JPL Mobility Testing Engineer for Perseverance, during a teleconferencing briefing with reporters, calling it a ‘major milestone’ for the mission.
The circle, back and forth, lasted only 33 minutes and went so well that the six-wheeled robber was on the move again on Friday.
Perseverance can drive an average of 200 meters per day.
The surface of Mars directly below NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover is seen using the Rover Down-Look Camera in an image obtained on February 22, 2021. [File: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout via Reuters]
NASA displayed a photo taken by the rover that left the wheel level marks in the red, sandy Martian soil after the first ride.
Another vivid image of the surrounding landscape shows a rugged, reddish terrain dotted with large, dark rocks in the foreground and a long outcrop of rocky, layered deposits in the distance – indicating the edge of the river delta.
I’m on the move! Just taken my first test ride on Mars, which covers about 5 meters. You look at the very beginning of my wheel tracks. Lots more to make. pic.twitter.com/7tFIwWFfJ4
– NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) 5 March 2021
So far, it seems that perseverance and its hardware, including the main robot arm, are working flawlessly, according to Robert Hogg, deputy mission manager.
But JPL engineers still have additional equipment checks to work on the Rover’s instruments before they will be ready to send the robot on a more ambitious journey as part of its primary mission to search for traces of fossilized microbial life.
The team has not yet conducted the country’s tests for drilling and collecting rock samples for return to Earth via future Mars missions.
The deck of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover, with Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry, one of the instruments on its built-up arm, is seen in an image taken by the rover’s navigation cameras on February 20, 2021. [File: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout via Reuters]
Once the system’s perseverance is complete, the rover will go to an ancient river delta to collect rocks for a decade from now to Earth.
Scientists are debating whether to take the smoother route to the nearby delta or a stricter way with intriguing remains from the once watery time three to four billion years ago.