Before reaching the one-year mark on Mars, NASA’s Perseverance rover achieves a new record.
The Perseverance rover from NASA will celebrate its one year on Mars next week, but it has already reached a new milestone in its voyage. Perseverance has broken the 17-year-old record for the longest drive on a single solar day on Mars set by Opportunity. Last February, Perseverance landed on Mars for a new mission to explore the red planet.
The rover will also gather rocks and return them to Earth for further study. NASA announced the rover’s new accomplishment on Twitter, claiming that it smashed two records. The first is the planet’s longest single-day drive. Perseverance drove 245.7 metres over the Martian surface in a single solar day, beating Opportunity’s previous record of 228 metres.
Perseverance’s second world record was for the longest AutoNav drive. For the first time, NASA integrated this feature into a rover. The rover can travel autonomously in AutoNav mode by navigating through 3D maps and software that assists it in avoiding hazards along the road. This feature also makes Perseverance speedier than when it is managed remotely by a human.
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Perseverance is NASA’s most sophisticated Mars rover, and it has achieved some significant milestones along the way. Six samples of Martian rock and atmosphere have been obtained by the rover, which will be transported to Earth for further study. It has already delivered over 100,000 photos and has accumulated over 50GB of scientific data. This rover, like NASA’s rovers, took two selfies on the Martian surface.
The major goal of the rover is to look for signs of ancient microbial life on Mars. Perseverance’s next major inquiry will focus on the delta that formed billions of years ago in the Jezero crater. When Perseverance arrived on Mars, she landed on Jezero.
