NASA Perseverance Rover

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See what NASA's Perseverance Mars rover sees in absolutely stunning 4K​

The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landed in Jezero Crater on the red planet less than two weeks ago, but the advanced robot has already sent back some of the most memorable motion pictures in history.

Cameras on the rover and the descent module that carried it through the Martian atmosphere documented the last few minutes of the long journey from Earth in a remarkable and spectacular way. With the dramatic landing out of the way, the far more chill but no less intriguing task of exploring the surface begins.

UK filmmaker Sean Doran has taken some of the first images taken by Perseverance from within Jezero Crater and processed them to create This is Mars, a short film that's one of the most captivating 30-minute panning shots you'll ever see.

See what NASA's Perseverance Mars rover sees in stunning, otherworldly 4K

The robot has barely moved from its landing spot, but it's sending back a steady stream of visual data that's freely available for anyone to play with.

www.cnet.com

 

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Perseverance rover captures the sounds of driving on Mars​

NASA's newest rover recorded audio of itself crunching over the surface of the Red Planet, adding a whole new dimension to Mars exploration.


As the Perseverance rover began to make tracks on the surface of Mars, a sensitive microphone it carries scored a first: the bangs, pings, and rattles of the robot's six wheels as they rolled over Martian terrain.


"A lot of people, when they see the images, don't appreciate that the wheels are metal," said Vandi Verma, a senior engineer and rover driver at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "When you're driving with these wheels on rocks, it's actually very noisy."


More than 16 minutes of sounds from Perseverance's 90-foot (27.3-meter) drive on March 7 were captured by Perseverance's entry, descent, and landing (EDL) microphone, which remains operational on the rover after its historic touchdown on Feb. 18. The off-the-shelf microphone was added to the rover to help take the public along for the ride during touchdown, but mission members have been eager to hear the sounds from the surface, too.

 

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NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has begun its first science campaign​

NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars has seen its future, and it’s full of rocks. Lots and lots of rocks. After spending the summer trundling through Jezero Crater and checking out the sights, it’s now time for Percy to get to work, teasing out the geologic history of its new home and seeking out signs of ancient microbial life.


“We’ve actually been on a road trip,” project manager Jennifer Trosper, who is based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said at a July 21 news conference. “And during it, we will take our very first sample from the surface of Mars.”


Percy is about 1 kilometer south of where it landed on February 18 (SN: 2/17/21). After driving itself around a region of sand dunes, accompanied by its tagalong helicopter Ingenuity (SN: 4/30/21), the robotic explorer has pulled up to its first sampling spot: a garden of flat, pale stones dubbed paver stones. “This is the area where we are really going to be digging in, both figuratively and literally, to understand the rocks that we have been on for the last several months,” said Kenneth Farley, Perseverance project scientist at Caltech.

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has begun its first science campaign

Now about 1 kilometer south of its landing spot, the rover has spotted several promising spots in its search for hints of ancient life.

www.sciencenews.org

 

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Perseverance is About to Collect the First Sample on Mars That Could Eventually be Returned to Earth​

On Feb. 18th, 2021, NASA’s Perseverance rover landed within the Jezero Crater on Mars. Like its predecessor, Curiosity, a fellow member of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program (MEP), the goal of Perseverance is to seek out evidence of possible life on Mars (past and present). A key part of this mission will be the first sample return ever performed on Mars, where samples obtained by Perseverance will be placed in a cache for later retrieval and return to Earth.

Perseverance is About to Collect the First Sample on Mars That Could Eventually be Returned to Earth

Mission controllers at NASA are making final preparations for the Perseverance rover to obtain its first sample of Martian rock, which will be returned to Earth for analysis.

www.universetoday.com

 

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Perseverance Fails to Collect its First Sample​

Over the past few weeks, there was quite a bit of excitement in the air at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, where mission controllers were prepping the Perseverance rover to acquire its first sample from the Martian surface. This mission milestone would be the culmination of years of hard work by a team of over 90 dedicated scientists and engineers.

Perseverance Fails to Collect its First Sample

The Perseverance rover failed to collect its first sample because the rock it tried to drill the sample from was too powdery.

www.universetoday.com