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The American space agency “NASA” announced Friday that the probe “Perseverance” had managed to travel a few meters on Mars for the first time since its landing on the surface two weeks ago.
The six-wheeled mobile robot advanced four meters on Thursday afternoon, then turned to the left and then retracted about two and a half meters to check if its operating systems were functioning properly.
“Perseverance” was able to take pictures of its own wheels on the surface of Mars, published by NASA. The rover passed six and a half meters in 33 minutes.
Search for clues to ancient life
“I don’t think I was ever happier when I saw the wheel tracks,” said the engineer in charge of robot mobility at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which designed the vehicle. The engineer noted during a press conference that the first phase of the investigation had progressed very well, accomplishing its mission “a very important step”.
The spacecraft can travel up to 200 meters on each Mars (slightly longer than Earth). It travels at five times the speed of any other Curiosity rover still operating on Mars.
Android mobile “Preference” landed on the surface of Mars on February 18 The last thing on Gizero crater scientists believe was a deep lake about 3.5 billion years ago.
Thirty rock samples from the planet will be explored in two years, and another vehicle will return to Earth to find evidence of ancient life on the Red Planet.
Scientists are now observing two trips of a mobile robot to the delta formed by an ancient river that flows into the lake, as researchers place great importance on its exploration because it is likely to contain large amounts of debris.
The first laser shot of “Supercam”
Before that, the helicopter will launch a little “ingenuity” under the vehicle, which will become the first motor vehicle to fly in the atmosphere of another planet. NASA teams are looking for the best place to conduct this historic experiment “before the end of spring,” Deputy Chief of Mission Robert Hogg promised Friday.
So far, its cameras have captured more than 7,000 images on Earth. On February 24, NASA released a remarkable panoramic image of several snapshots taken at the mobile robot’s landing site, showing the top of Jessero crater.
One of the photos of the vehicle shows a light brown rock. In his analysis, a scientific instrument called “Supercom” was used for the first time. NASA plans to present the results next week.
The US space agency also named the landing site “Perseverance” after Octavia e-Butler, a science fiction writer born in Pasadena, California, where JPL is located.
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