Mars rover Perseverance has completed their first test mission on the Red Planet.
Washington, United States:
Perseverance Mars rover has successfully launched its first test mission on the Red Planet, U.S. space agency NASA said Friday.
The six-wheeled rover traveled about 6.5 meters (21.3 feet) in 33 minutes Thursday, NASA said.
He moved four meters forward, turned into a position 150 steps to the left, and then up 2.5 meters back, leaving tire tracks in Martian dust.
“This was our first opportunity to‘ kick the tires ’and take out Perseverance for spinning,” said Anais Zarifian, a continuous motion test bed engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Zarifian said the test campaign went “remarkably well” and represented a “major milestone for the mission and the transition team.”
“We’re going to make longer scratches,” she said. “This is just the beginning.”
News from Mars: @NASAPersevereThe team has tested his artificial arm, studied scientific instruments, and taken the rover on the first run. Mission scientists have named their touchdown site “Octavia E. Butler Landing,” in honor of the late science fiction author: https://t.co/jcyr3ZZDGzpic.twitter.com/5xsQnxdjE3
– NASA (@NASA) March 5, 2021
“Our first trip went well. […] You can see the wheel tracks we left on Mars. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to see wheel tracks, and I’ve seen a lot of them. “- @NASAJPLAnais Zarifian describes a milestone for @NASAPersevere. pic.twitter.com/gewrGoLsRa
– NASA (@NASA) March 5, 2021
NASA engineers said they were exploring possible routes for longer rover missions on the surface of Mars.
A slightly longer trip was planned for Friday, and maybe another Saturday if things go well, NASA said.
The rover can cover 200 meters per Martian day, which is slightly longer than a day on Earth.
And it goes five times faster than its former Curiosity, which is still operating eight years after it landed on Mars.
Sustainability mission deputy manager Robert Hogg said engineers were also preparing for the first flight of a helicopter drone carried by the rover.
Hogg said the rover team was working out flight zones and hoped to make the first flight in late spring or early summer.
He said the mission had not had major problems so far.
“These are just small products,” he said. “Everything we tried has worked beautifully.”
Perseverance was launched on July 30, 2020 and landed on the surface of Mars on February 18 on a mission to find signs of a past life on the Red Planet.
The rover’s main mission lasts a little over two years but is likely to last much longer.
Over the coming years, Perseverance will seek to collect 30 rock and earth samples in seal tubs for return to Earth sometime in the 2030s for analysis.
About the size of an SUV, the craft weighs a ton, is equipped with a seven-foot-long robotic arm, has 19 cameras, two microphones and a set of advanced instruments.
To date it has returned more than 7,000 images, including one of light brown rock used to test a device called SuperCam: an ultra-vibrant French-made camera the size of a shoe box that can carry laser beams at rocks up to seven meters away to inspect their manufacture.
The rover is only the fifth man to put his wheels down on Mars, all American. The feat was first performed in 1997.
The United States is preparing for its last human mission on the planet, though planning is still in its infancy.