NASA’s roving robot “Perseverance” has successfully completed the first year of its long mission on Mars, in search of data indicating the possibility of life on its surface, while scientists on Earth await what the rover will find, which is the most complex of the vehicles sent so far to Mars. .
On February 18, 2021, the rover landed on the surface of the Red Planet after a seven-month spaceflight. The scientist held his breath as he watched his astonishing descent through the thin Martian atmosphere. Seven long minutes of ‘terror’, followed by an overwhelming sense of relief when the vehicle opened its wheels without incident at the site of an ancient lake, Jezero Crater.
This was followed by a three-month phase devoted to training or “taming” the seven tools carried by the chariot on unknown and potentially difficult conditions.
Perseverance has so far walked 4 kilometers – including 500 meters last weekend, which is a record. There is no point in moving quickly, as the goal of the mission is for the vehicle to collect, within 6 years, about 40 well-selected samples, with another vehicle transporting these samples to Earth by 2030.
The mini-helicopter “Ingenuity” is considered the reconnaissance tool for the robot, thus becoming the first motorized vehicle to fly over another planet, and the delta will be the destination of the next “Perseverance” on Mars, which is located two kilometers away, but the vehicle will have to turn around to avoid a sand dune, until it reaches the Destined for spring. “The land of Mars is a land of many dangers, as it is full of pebbles and large sand dunes,” says Pernille Bernardi, the engineer at the French National Institute for Scientific Research and responsible for the French-American tool “SuperCam”, which is the “eye” of the roving robot.
In its early days, the vehicle recorded sounds and sent them to the ground officials.