Perseverance rover marks 1 Mars year on Red Planet - Space.com

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover is wrapping up its premier ngo connected the Red Planet. 

The car-sized Perseverance rover landed connected the level of Mars' Jezero Crater connected Feb. 18, 2021, kicking disconnected an ambitious aboveground ngo designed to past 1 Red Planet year, which is astir 687 Earth days.

That clip is present up; the Mars calendar turned for Perseverance connected Friday (Jan. 6). But don't fret: The six-wheeled robot volition modulation seamlessly into an extended ngo connected Saturday (Jan. 7).

Related: 12 astonishing photos from the Perseverance rover's 1st Earth twelvemonth connected Mars

Perseverance has 2 main tasks connected the Red Planet. The rover is hunting for imaginable signs of Mars life connected the level of the 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero, which hosted a large water and a stream delta billions of years ago. Perseverance is besides collecting and caching dozens of samples, which a associated NASA-European Space Agency (ESA) run volition bring to Earth for elaborate survey successful the aboriginal 2030s, if each goes according to plan.

That run volition motorboat a rocket-toting NASA lander arsenic good arsenic an ESA Earth-return orbiter to the Red Planet successful the mid to precocious 2020s. The program calls for Perseverance to thrust its samples implicit to the lander; the rocket volition past motorboat the precious cargo to Mars orbit, wherever the ESA probe volition snag it and haul the worldly backmost to Earth.

Perseverance has made a batch of advancement connected the sampling beforehand to date. The rover has already filled up and sealed 18 of its 38 titanium sampling tubes (opens successful caller tab) arsenic good arsenic 3 of its 5 "witness tubes," which volition assistance ngo squad members measure the cleanliness of Perseverance's sampling system. 

And the rover has begun caching samples, too, to day dropping four of a planned 10 tubes connected a spot of Jezero's level that the ngo squad calls Three Forks. This depot is simply a backup, to screen for the anticipation that Perseverance won't beryllium capable to ferry its samples to the lander erstwhile the clip comes. (The rover is successful bully signifier now, but there's nary warrant its wellness volition clasp done the extremity of the decade.)

In that case, 2 tiny helicopters that volition motorboat aboard the lander volition fetch the illustration tubes from the depot 1 by one.

With this hedge successful mind, the ngo squad has been collecting 2 samples from each of its people rocks. Perseverance is keeping 1 acceptable connected committee and caching the different set.

The fetch helicopters volition beryllium based heavy connected Ingenuity, the 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) chopper that traveled to Mars with Perseverance.

Ingenuity's main occupation was to amusement that aerial exploration is imaginable connected Mars contempt the planet's thin atmosphere, which is conscionable 1% arsenic dense arsenic that of Earth astatine oversea level. The small rotorcraft rapidly achieved that extremity during a five-flight objection run and is present serving arsenic a scout for Perseverance connected an ambitious extended mission.

Ingenuity present has 37 flights nether its belt, which unneurotic person covered a full of 4.7 miles (7.6 kilometers). Perseverance, for its part, has racked up astir 8.7 miles (14.0 km) of off-Earth driving, and that full volition ascent considerably during its extended mission.

After it finishes dropping samples astatine the Three Forks depot, Perseverance volition caput for the apical of Jezero's past stream delta, apt finishing the ascent successful February. The rover volition past research the portion for the adjacent 8 months oregon so, looking for, among different things, rocks that were washed into the crater by Jezero's past river.

"The Delta Top Campaign is our accidental to get a glimpse astatine the geological process beyond the walls of Jezero Crater," Perseverance lawman task idiosyncratic Katie Stack Morgan, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory successful Southern California, said successful a statement past month (opens successful caller tab).

"Billions of years ago, a raging stream carried debris and boulders from miles beyond the walls of Jezero," she said. "We are going to research these past stream deposits and get samples from their long-traveled boulders and rocks."

Mike Wall is the writer of "Out There (opens successful caller tab)" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a publication astir the hunt for alien life. Follow him connected Twitter @michaeldwall (opens successful caller tab). Follow america connected Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens successful caller tab) or on Facebook (opens successful caller tab).