THE largest robot on the red planet passed the milestone of 1,000 sols (Martian days). And he’s in great shape! Drilling and sample capture continues, while he turned on the flasher to slowly exit the enormous Jezero crater, while studying the terrain with all his instruments.
The spectacular images of its landing on Mars resurfaced this week (thanks in particular to a version remastered by a specialist), and yet they already date from February 2021! Since then, Perseverance has traveled Martian soil for 1000 sols.
The adventure is going very well, in particular because its designers at JPL and NASA were able to benefit from feedback from Curiosity, which has been on site since 2012. But also because the terrain on which it is located precisely placed is relatively welcoming. As a result, he has already covered more than 23 kilometers on the surface!
A large study by Jezero
Perseverance, at the end of the year, filled 23 of its 37 tubes intended for samples of Martian soil (i.e. 60%). But there is still a lot of time before these can be recovered and one day returned to Earth, so the rover has plenty of time to move away from its original landing site, the bottom of Jezero crater.
We now know thanks to its study of the soil that this crater was formed around 4 billion years ago, and underwent erosion before being taken over by water a few hundred million years later. A lake was notably formed there, even if it was not deep (around ten meters at most), and the delta supplied an area of almost 35 square kilometers! So many details that only close observation could provide… and this is of course nothing compared to the knowledge that we expect from the samples taken. But it will obviously be necessary to bring them back to Earth.
We love the crater, but we leave it
Perseverance spent the year exploring a rather rocky area above the crater floor, the Jezero Delta. It has circled the (smaller) Belva crater, and is heading northwest, reaching a rather sandy area, the Neretva valley. It’s practically a “pass”, the lock that will allow Perseverance to exit the Jezero crater. At his own pace, of course. There are in fact a few kilometers left before the exit, without forgetting that the study of the ground will probably be fascinating for the geologists and astrophysicists who will observe the photos and the results of the laser impact analyzes (a drilling campaign is probably also to be expected) . Waiting for the sequel? In any case, Perseverance is always accompanied by the Ingenuity helicopter, which is even a little ahead of the journey: it is already in the Neretva valley!
Source : NASA
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