Perseverance rover can travel 200 meters a day, but scientists need to run tests and safety checks before it goes any further.
NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance made its first, short ride over the surface of the red planet, two weeks after the robotic science lab’s stunning landing on the floor of a massive crater, mission managers said Friday.
The Perseverance rover first ventured from its landing position on Thursday, two weeks after landing on the Red Planet, in search of signs of a past life.
Taking instructions from mission managers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles, the rover rolled forward four meters, turned about 150 degrees to the left, then backed up another 2.5 meters for a total of 6.5 meters (21.3 feet) during its half-hour test at Jezero Crater, the site of an ancient long-lost lake bed and river delta on Mars.
“It went incredibly well,” said Anais Zarifian, a JPL mobility test engineer for Perseverance, during a conference call with reporters, calling it a “huge milestone” for the mission.
The roundabout, driving back and forth took only 33 minutes and went so well that the six-wheeled rover was on the move again on Friday.
Perseverance is able to drive an average of 200 meters a day.
The surface of Mars directly beneath NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover is seen using the Rover Down-Look Camera in an image taken February 22, 2021. [File: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout via Reuters]
NASA showed a photo taken by the rover showing the traces of the wheel’s tread left in the reddish, sandy Martian soil after the first ride.
Another vivid image of the surrounding landscape shows a rugged, ruddy terrain dotted with large, dark boulders in the foreground and a high spur of rocky, stratified deposits in the distance – marking the edge of the river delta.
I’m on my way! I just took my first test drive on Mars, which covered about 16 feet (5 meters). You’re looking at the very beginning of my wheel tracks. Much more to make. pic.twitter.com/7tFIwWFfJ4
– NASA’s Persistence Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) March 5, 2021
According to Robert Hogg, deputy mission manager, persistence and the hardware, including the main robotic arm, seem to be working perfectly so far.
But JPL engineers still need to perform additional equipment checks on the rover’s many instruments before they are 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 yet to perform post-landing tests on the rover’s advanced system to drill and collect 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 stowed arm, can be seen in an image taken by the rover’s navigation cameras on Mars on February 20, 2021. [File: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout via Reuters]
Once the Persistence system checks are complete, the rover will move to an ancient river delta to collect rocks to return to Earth in ten years.
Scientists debate whether to take the smoother route to get to the nearby delta or a potentially more difficult road with intriguing relics from that once-watery time three to four billion years ago.