The Perseverance robot vehicle made its first trip across the surface of Mars, covering 6.5 meters, a move that is the first stage of this mission, NASA scientists reported on Friday.
Two weeks after its arrival on the red planet, which took place on February 18, the “rover” took its “first steps” this Thursday afternoon, moving just over four meters ahead, then turning left with about 150 degrees and finally back about 2.5 meters.
“Our first trip went incredibly well,” said Anais Zarifian, an engineer at NASA’s Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), who is part of the team responsible for the Perseverance mobility tests.
“We are now confident that our propulsion system is ready to operate, able to take us where science takes us in the next two years,” he added.
Members of the “rover” mission, whose top speed is 0.01 miles per hour (16 meters per hour), even faster than its predecessor Curiosity, said that once Perseverance fully begins its scientific investigations, it will make regular movements. of about 200 meters.
At the press conference, team members showed images showing traces of the vehicle on the rocky surface of Mars.
Katie Stack Morgan, a deputy scientist on a mission, announced today that the place in Jezero Crater where Perseverance arrived was named Octavia E. Butler, in honor of the science fiction writer of the same name, born in California.
As explained today, in recent days, the vehicle has performed program updates and various tests, including the implementation of two wind sensors from the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA), developed by the Spanish Center for Astrobiology (INTA-CSIC).
Also, this week, mission scientists deployed the robot’s two-meter-long robotic arm for the first time, flexing each of the five joints for two hours.
The deputy director of the mission, Robert Hogg, said he was conducting tests to determine the best place to place the Ingenuity Mars helicopter.
He added that he intends to complete the first necessary tests and measurements before the summer before the helicopter can make its first flight in the Martian air.
In the first two weeks on the red planet, Perseverance has already sent about 7,000 images captured by “the most advanced suite of cameras that has ever traveled to Mars,” as Morgan said.
Perseverance, which left Earth in July 2020, carries a device that will turn carbon dioxide, which accounts for 96% of the Martian atmosphere, into oxygen for astronauts to breathe on future manned voyages and as a rocket propellant to return to Earth.
The robot is tasked with searching for ancient life, taking samples, studying the geology and climate of the red planet, and preparing the way for a manned journey.