Mars rover Perseverance is on a record course
The Mars rover Perseverance has been on Mars for five years and has covered almost as much distance as the rover Opportunity. Its record is in jeopardy.
Artistic representation of the Mars rover Perseverance
(Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Perseverance is on a record course: The Mars rover is well on its way to setting a distance record on Mars, according to the US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Perseverance landed on Mars almost five years ago, in February 2021. Since then, the rover has traveled about 40 kilometers on the neighboring planet, NASA reports. It assumes that this will increase significantly.
Empfohlener redaktioneller Inhalt
Mit Ihrer Zustimmung wird hier ein externes YouTube-Video (Google Ireland Limited) geladen.
Ich bin damit einverstanden, dass mir externe Inhalte angezeigt werden. Damit können personenbezogene Daten an Drittplattformen (Google Ireland Limited) übermittelt werden. Mehr dazu in unserer Datenschutzerklärung.
The record holder is the rover Opportunity, which covered about 45 kilometers in its almost 15-year mission about 45 kilometers. If nothing unforeseen happens, Perseverance will significantly surpass this record: The team assumes that the actuators that drive its wheels will last for at least another 60 kilometers. This means that Perseverance will likely travel more than 100 kilometers on Mars.
Perseverance has already set records: In June, it covered almost 412 meters in a single Martian day. No rover has managed that before. At the end of 2023, it drove almost 700 meters autonomously, i.e., without human control. This is also a best mark.
In operation longer than planned
Like its predecessors, Perseverance has exceeded its planned mission duration of about two years. Its direct predecessor Curiosity has extended its mission from two to more than 13 years. Perseverance is largely identical in construction to Curiosity. However, some parts have been optimized, including the wheels, which are affected by the sharp-edged Martian rock.
The rovers Spirit and Opportunity exceeded their planned mission times even further: The two research vehicles, launched in January 2004, were each supposed to be active for 90 days. For Spirit, this turned into over six years, and for Opportunity, even almost 15 years.
Over the past two years, the team has evaluated Perseverance's systems and concluded that the rover will last at least until 2031. These tests have indicated that the rover is "in excellent condition," said Steve Lee, deputy project manager for Perseverance, on December 27 at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. "All systems are fully capable of supporting a very long mission to intensively explore this fascinating region of Mars."
Videos by heise
Perseverance is operating in Jezero Crater, a crater about 50 kilometers in size in the northern hemisphere, formed by a meteorite impact. The crater once contained a lake and a river delta.
(wpl)
