The Perseverance rover has a certain autonomy to drive on Mars. NASA intends to rely on this capacity for the next route of the rover, a distance of 5 kilometers.
Le rover Perseverance getting ready to hit the road once more Mars. After spending time collecting various samples from the surface of the planet red, the rover of the Mars 2020 mission will have to move towards its next sampling zone. For this, he will travel 5 kilometers, clarified NASA on March 18, 2022. This journey might “ be the greatest distance traveled in a month by a Mars rover », indicated the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Twitter.
Perseverance must reach a delta, that is to say a triangular mouth. It was likely formed by an ancient river in Jezero Crater, where the mission landed more than a year ago. NASA intends to rely on the autonomy of the rover in terms of driving and in particular on software, AutoNav, which was installed aboard Perseverance. It allows the rover to decide on a trajectory without human intervention, using the images obtained with its cameras. AutoNav is particularly useful on fairly flat routes, with moderate dangers (large rocks, slopes), which the rover can easily detect and circumvent.
“A record series of sprints” to the delta
The rover thus manages more of the driving itself, without necessarily always waiting for instructions from the responsible team, here on Earth. The journey that Perseverance is regarding to take relying on its autonomous navigation capabilities is described as ” a record series of sprints by NASA. If the rover succeeds, it will be the first to cover that much distance in a single month. His road will be strewn with a few pitfalls: Perseverance will have to deal with sand, craters and sharp rocks.
Of course, Perseverance is never completely on its own, even when using AutoNav. NASA must continue to plan its basic route and spot obstacles, indicating at least areas for the rover to avoid.
Until Perseverance arrives in the delta, the rover is expected to conduct fewer science activities than before. NASA wants to focus on driving to get to this new destination quickly. But the rover should still take plenty of photos, which will show us its perspective as it gets closer and closer to the delta of this promising crater.
