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In a major milestone for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), its fourth Mars rover, Perseverance, completed its first test drive on the red planet. The rover covered a distance of about 6.5 meters across the planet’s surface in a journey that lasted about 33 minutes.
In its first test drive, the rover advanced four meters and then made a 150-degree turn to the left. After this, it backed up 2.5 meters and stopped at its new temporary parking space, according to a NASA statement.
The unit helped the space agency verify and calibrate all of the Perseverance rover’s systems, subsystems and instruments before it began its science mission. “When it comes to wheeled vehicles on other planets, there are few first-time events that live up to the importance of the first voyage,” said Anais Zarifian, mobility testbed engineer for the 2020 Perseverance Mars rover at the Jet. NASA Propulsion. Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California. “This was our first opportunity to ‘kick the tires’ and take Perseverance for a spin. We are now confident that our powertrain is ready.”
As part of its mission, Perseverance is supposed to collect rock samples and seal them in its dozens of super-sterilized titanium tubes so that scientists can study the presence of microbial life on Mars. This would help characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, giving way to human exploration of Mars. Once this mission begins, the rover is expected to make regular trips of more than 200 meters.
Perseverance landed on Mars on February 18 and has since undergone several routine checks, such as a software update, replacing the computer program that helped it land on Mars with one that NASA will rely on to analyze. the planet. On March 2, the robotic arm of the 2-meter-long rover was disassembled for the first time. Each of his five joints flexed over the course of two hours.
The rover has also been sending images from Mars using its set of 25 cameras.
