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NASA’s Perseverance rover made its first trip to Mars, just weeks after landing on the Red Planet.
The one-ton robot traveled 21.3 feet (6.5 m) in a mobility test that, according to the space agency, will allow the rover’s systems and instruments to be checked and calibrated.
Once Perseverance really gets going, it is expected to make regular trips of 656 feet (200 m) or more.
Anais Zarifian, an engineer for the 2020 Mars Perseverance rover mobility test bed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said: “When it comes to wheeled vehicles on other planets, there are few events left by the first time they are at the level of the first.
“This was our first chance to ‘kick the tires’ and take Perseverance for a spin.”
And the news was good: Ms Zarifian said the rover’s six-wheel drive “responded superbly,” adding: “We are now confident that our powertrain is ready to go, capable of taking us where the science is. take us over the next two years. “
Perseverance moved on for about 33 minutes, first driving 13 feet before turning into place 150 degrees and backing up 8 feet to find his new parking space.
The rover landed in Mars on February 18 for much celebration in the US and around the world, becoming the ninth spacecraft since the 1970s to accomplish such a feat.
The landing came after a journey of 300 million miles for almost seven months, as part of a mission to find out if there was ever life on the mysterious planet.
Scientists believe that if there ever was life on Mars, it would have been 3 billion to 4 billion years ago, when water was still flowing there.
Two spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates and China have also been put into orbit around Mars in recent weeks, a sign of growing global interest.
Perseverance carries 19 cameras, more than any other interplanetary mission, and has already sent 7,000 photos to Earth.
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The rover is also equipped with a navigation system to help it avoid dangerous rocks and ravines, a range of scientific instruments to conduct experiments, and a miniature helicopter that will become the first helicopter to fly over another planet.
The rock and soil samples you collect will be sealed in tubes and left in a well-identified location on the surface for a future mission to collect.
Next in Perseverance’s journal are more tests, and the calibration of its scientific instruments and longer driving tests, as well as the experimental flight test program for the Helicopter Ingenio Mars is leading.
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