“Perseverance” sends the first analytical elements to the rocks of Mars

The scientific instrument “Super Cam” of the mobile robot “Perseverance” sent the first analytical elements to the Martian rocks that the spacecraft landed on its surface three weeks ago, according to what officials of the mission announced, confirming that the high-tech camera is “very healthy.”
The tool, designed by the French and aimed at providing data on the chemical and mineral composition of the surface of the red planet in search of traces of past life on it, sent its first data the day after the rover landed February 18, according to Agence France-Presse.
Sylvester Morris, one of the designers of the “SuperCam” scientific officer at the Institute of Astrophysics and Planetary Science, told a press conference on YouTube that these early results prove that the tool is “in very good shape. healthy”. And the mission scientist, Naomi Murdoch, resumed the operation of the “sounds recorded for the first time on the surface of Mars by means of a machine” after the agency “NASA” released the first recording of the winds. of Mars shortly after the landing of the craft. In the new recording, the sound of the impact of the laser beams fired by the “Super Cam” at the rock for examination was heard, and it sounded like a clicking sound.
Sylvester explained that the first radiation emitted on the twelfth day of the mission, on a rock called “Maz”, showed that the most important constituents of it were silicon, potassium and aluminum.
The “Super Cam” was installed at the top of the rover’s mast and combines five measurement technologies, including a camera and a microphone, to study the geology of Mars and help select samples, with the aim of returning them to Earth for analysis.