{"id":11821,"date":"2021-03-05T22:04:42","date_gmt":"2021-03-05T14:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/perseverance-rover-aces-first-test-drive-on-mars\/"},"modified":"2021-03-05T22:04:42","modified_gmt":"2021-03-05T14:04:42","slug":"perseverance-rover-aces-first-test-drive-on-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/perseverance-rover-aces-first-test-drive-on-mars\/","title":{"rendered":"Perseverance rover aces first test drive on Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This image was taken during the first drive of NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover on Mars on March 4, 2021, shortly after its first drive after landing. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two weeks into its mission of exploration on Mars, NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover has completed its first test drive and returned some 7,000 images from its station in Jezero Crater, including mesmerizing vistas of distant outcrops from the first zoom-capable camera to reach the Red Planet, mission managers said Friday.<\/p>\n

The rover is doing an \u201cexceptional job\u201d and with no notable faults or glitches, said Robert Hogg, Perseverance\u2019s deputy mission manager at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.<\/p>\n

Other major tasks since the rover\u2019s landing Feb. 18 included a software update to configure Perseverance\u2019s computers for long-distance drives, instrument checkouts, and activation of the rover\u2019s 7-foot-long (2.1-meter) robotic arm.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most significant milestone since landing occurred Thursday, when ground teams commanded the rover to drive forward, turn in place, and then back up. The first 33-minute test drive covered just 21 feet, or 6.5 meters,but Perseverance will soon travel much farther.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur first drive went incredibly well,\u201d said Anais Zarifian, a Perseverance mobility test engineer at JPL.<\/p>\n

Perseverance has six aluminum wheels, each with titanium spokes for support, and a suspension capable of traveling over rocks as big as the wheels themselves. The one-ton rover is based on the design of NASA\u2019s Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in 2012, but with some improvements.<\/p>\n

The wheels on Perseverance are sightly narrower, have a larger diameter, and are made of thicker materials, Zarifian said. Engineers also changed the tread pattern on the wheels to reduce the risk of damage from sharp rocks, which created dings and cuts in Curiosity\u2019s wheels.<\/p>\n

A big change on Perseverance is the introduction of new autonomous driving software, which will allow the rover to navigate itself to a destination. Using images from its suite of cameras, the rover can autonomously steer around rocks and other obstacles, or stop the drive if conditions are unsafe. It currently takes more than 10 minutes for radio signals to travel from Earth to Mars, eliminating any chance for ground teams to send up real-time driving commands.<\/p>\n

The software update on Perseverance\u2019s primary and backup flight computers gives the spacecraft the smarts it needs for its surface mission, which is expected to last at least two Earth years, or one Martian year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe end result is kind of like getting an update to your electric car software,\u201d Hogg said. \u201cOne day, your car knows how to do autonomous driving, detecting obstacles and navigating by itself, amongst many, many other bells and whistles that we have in store.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still drive at 0.01 mph, same as Curiosity, but thanks to our improvements on our autonav software, our enhanced navigation software, and our new cameras, we can really drive about five times faster than Curiosity, and we\u2019re capable averaging about 200 meters (660 feet) per sol (a Martian day),\u201d Zarifian said.<\/p>\n

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This image was captured while NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover drove on Mars for the first time on March 4, 2021. One of Perseverance\u2019s Hazard Avoidance Cameras (Hazcams) captured this image as the rover completed a short traverse and turn from its landing site in Jezero Crater. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re able to think while driving,\u201d she said. \u201cSo in other words, Perseverance can walk and chew gum at the same time. So we\u2019re able to take a stereo pair of images, process those images on the VCE (Vision Compute Element), identify hazards in the terrain and choose a path forward, all while the wheels are still turning\u2026 So this means we can drive longer in the same amount of time, and we can have less time planning drives and driving on the surface, which means more time to do science.\u201d<\/p>\n

Controllers at JPL sent up commands for the test drive Thursday after checking the functionality of the rover\u2019s wheel actuators, and putting the four corner wheels \u2014 which do the steering \u2014 through 30-degree range of motion tests.<\/p>\n

With those tests successful, the rover \u201cperfectly\u201d executed commands to drive about 13 feet (4.5 meters) forward, turn 150 degrees to the left, then back up about 8 feet (2.5 meters). During the drive, the rover took pictures to image the points on the wheels where the rover landed last month. Perseverance\u2019s \u201csky crane\u201d descent system lowered the rover from a rocket-powered jetpack to the Martian surface directly on its wheels.<\/p>\n

NASA has named the landing site \u201cOctavia E. Butler Landing\u201d after the late science fiction writer.<\/p>\n

A second drive was planned Friday, when Perseverance was expected to turn on its ground-penetrating radar to begin collecting data on geologic layers in the Martian crust, according to Katie Stack Morgan, Perseverance\u2019s deputy project scientist at JPL.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking ahead, we\u2019re going to to do some longer drives,\u201d Zarifian said. \u201cThis is really just the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perseverance landed in Jezero Crater, an equatorial basin carved out by a violent impact from an asteroid or comet. The crater was filled with water more than 3 billion years ago, and a river flowing into the lake deposited layers of sediment now evident as a dried-up delta.<\/p>\n

The rover\u2019s mission is to explore the site, probe its ancient habitability, and collect more than 30 samples of rock and soil for return to Earth by a future spacecraft. The Mars Sample Return mission, a joint project between NASA and the European Space Agency, is set for launch as soon as 2026, and could return Perseverance\u2019s samples as early as 2031.<\/p>\n

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From its landing site, \u201cOctavia E. Butler Landing,\u201d NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover can see a remnant of a fan-shaped deposit of sediments known as a delta (the raised area of dark brown rock in the middle ground) with its Mastcam-Z instrument. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/ASU<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hogg said the rover is working well. Perseverance\u2019s instruments have all passed preliminary post-landing checkouts, and the rover\u2019s weather station deployed and is already collecting meteorological data. Earlier this week, the robotic arm moved for the first time, demonstrating it can maneuver a 100-pound (45-kilogram) turret packed with scientific instruments and a drill that will core out the rock samples for return to Earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t had any hardware issues,\u201d Hogg said. \u201cEverything has been working that we\u2019ve been checking out. It\u2019s actually been amazingly smooth in that respect. I\u2019m going to knock on wood here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ground teams at JPL are analyzing images from the rover to find a safe place to release the Ingenuity helicopter, a 4-pound (1.8-kilogram) rotorcraft that will attempt the first flight of an aircraft through the Martian atmosphere. The Mars helicopter is scheduled to separate from its mounting point on the rover\u2019s belly and begin tests flights in the next few months.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still analyzing various areas to determine the best place to do that, and the right place to do its flight,\u201d Hogg said.<\/p>\n

The exact timing of the helicopter flight will depend on the location officials select.<\/p>\n

Hogg said the rover\u2019s Sample Caching System still has to undergo more activations and testing before Perseverance can begin collecting rock specimens. The caching system is one of the most complex mechanisms ever sent to another planet, with its own internal robotic arm, seals, and a spinning carousel holding multiple drill bits for rock sampling.<\/p>\n

The first use of the drill to gather a rock sample is expected this summer, following the helicopter demo.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, scientists are eagerly awaiting every new image beamed down by Perseverance. The rover\u2019s zoom-capable mast camera has returned jaw-dropping views of distant rock outcrops at the edge of the ancient river delta.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe imagery coming down with the cameras that we have on this rover \u2014 the 25 cameras \u2014 the resolution, the colors, and the spectra has just been amazing,\u201d Hogg said. \u201cWe\u2019ve never been able to see Mars in this way.\u201d<\/p>\n

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This image shows two possible routes (blue and purple) to the fan-shaped deposit of sediments known as a delta for NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover on Mars. The yellow line marks a notional traverse exploring the Jezero delta. The white dot at right is the rover\u2019s current location. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/University of Arizona<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to Morgan, the rover planning team is plotting out potential routes for Perseverance to leave its landing site and head for the river delta more than a mile away.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore we can think about exploring the Jezero delta, we have to figure out how to get the rover there,\u201d Morgan said. \u201cThe science team is working with engineers to determine the best path for the rover to drive to the delta.\u201d<\/p>\n

One possible route would take the rover to the north over flatter, safer terrain before turning to the northwest to the edge of the delta. Another option is to drive toward the south and then west, taking Perseverance closer to rugged outcrops that scientists believe are the eroded remnants of the once-larger delta.<\/p>\n

All along the way, the rover will be collecting and storing rock core samples inside 43 hermetically-sealed tubes it carries on-board. Each of tubes is about the size of a small cigar.<\/p>\n

Once on the delta, the rover will likely start placing the sample canisters on the ground for retrieval by a fetch rover on the Mars Sample Return mission, which will take the tubes to a rocket for launch back into space.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working with engineers now to determine which path is most efficient, and safest, and most scientifically interesting for the rover to explore, and then we\u2019ll arrive there at the front of the delta,\u201d Morgan said. \u201cFrom there we\u2019ll go and explore the delta, and eventually wind up at the mouth of the river that once entered Jezero, where we will likely deposit our very first sample depot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This image was taken during the first drive of NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover on Mars on March 4, 2021, shortly after its first drive after landing. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech Two weeks into its mission of exploration on Mars, NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover has completed its first test drive and returned some 7,000 images from its station in Jezero […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1183,1631,367,1761,1851,1214,1788,190],"class_list":["post-11821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-jet-propulsion-laboratory","tag-jezero-crater","tag-mars","tag-mars-2020","tag-mars-reconnaissance-orbiter","tag-mars-sample-return","tag-mastcam-z","tag-nasa"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11821"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11821\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}