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The Mars rover “Perseverance” moved around the planet for the first time. According to information from NASA on Friday, the rover traveled a distance of 6.5 meters two weeks after landing on the Red Planet, and took a good 33 minutes on Thursday.
The trip was intended as a test of “perseverance” (in German, more or less “staying power”). “The rover’s six-wheel drive worked perfectly,” said NASA engineer Anais Zarifian. “We are now confident that our powertrain is ready for use and can take us where science takes us for the next two years.”
Around 200 meters of routes
When conducting scientific experiments, the Mars rover must travel distances of around 200 meters. “Perseverance”, about 1,000 kilograms in weight and the size of a small car, was touched on February 18 after 203 days of flight and 472 million kilometers traveled in a risky maneuver in a dry lake on Mars.
The rover will examine this lake with a diameter of around 45 kilometers for the next two years. Development and construction of the roughly $ 2.5 billion (about € 2.2 billion) vehicle had taken eight years. Its mission is to search for traces of previous microbial life on Mars and study the planet’s climate and geology. (SDA)
