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NASA has released a recording of the Perserverance rover landing
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The Perseverance rover, which landed on Mars in the second half of February, will soon begin studying the surface of the Red Planet for good. For now, NASA is checking the operation of subsequent vehicle systems and taking thousands of interesting photos.
The first meters of the Perseverance rover on Mars
Now the agency has decided to test the possibility of trouble-free movement and turning of the rover’s wheels. NASA announced that Perseverance made its first ride on the surface of Mars on March 4. The vehicle has covered a total distance of 6.5 meters so far, which took him 33 minutes.
Initially, the mission operators ordered the rover to drive 4 meters forward, then the vehicle turned left by 150 degrees and covered another 2.5 meters. Thus, he reached a place where he would stay for a while.
Using cameras installed on board the rover, NASA engineers were able to thoroughly check both the operation of the vehicle’s drive system and analyze the place where the rover had remained since landing on the Red Planet on February 18, 2021. On the occasion, NASA boasted about photos taken after Perseverance covered the first meters.
When it comes to wheeled vehicles on foreign planets, there are few first moments as significant as the very first ride. This was our first chance to “hit the hoof” and take Perseverance for a spin. The rover’s six-wheel drive system has proven itself excellently and we are now convinced that it is ready to go and will take us wherever science takes us in the next two years.
– said Anais Zarifian, engineer responsible for the drive of the Perseverance rover from NASA JPL.
I’m moving! I just did my first test ride on Mars, covering about 16 feet (5 meters). You are just looking at the very beginning of my wheel tracks. And there is much more to do for me
– posted after covering the first meters on the Twitter feed of the rover, which is conducted in a first-person narrative.
Further tests of the rover’s systems
This is another very important test to check how Perseverance works after landing in Jezero Crater. On March 2, NASA stretched the two-meter-long robotic arm of the rover and checked that it was moving correctly. In the future, the arm will be responsible for carrying out some of the research missions and collecting Martian rock samples, which will then be secured and left for future missions to visit the Red Planet.
The rover has also covered its first meters only as part of the next stage of testing, i.e. checking all the rover’s systems. And although the distance traveled during this test may not impress some people, the agency’s engineers talk about a milestone that has just taken place. As NASA explains, when the rover starts studying the surface of Mars for good, it will travel at least 200 meters during the day.
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