A screenshot from real footage of NASA ’s Perseverance rover landing on Mars in 2021.NASA / JPL
It ’s exactly three age since NASA ’s rover , Perseverance , tinct down on Marsin spectacular way .
With Curiosity and others having already pass the martian open in earlier commission , Perseverance was n’t the first NASA rover to have shore on the space planet . But thanks to better cameras , the footage of its landing was by far the most remarkable , with multiple angles capturing the rover ’s final descent in high definition :
A screenshot from actual footage of NASA’s Perseverance rover landing on Mars in 2021.NASA/JPL
NASA ’s Mars team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ) in Southern California check off the third anniversary of Perseverance ’s landing place in a stake on social media on Sunday that shared some late stats about the rover delegation .
JPL revealed that in the last 12 month , Perseverance has move more than six Swedish mile across Mars’Jezero Craterand taken more than 116,000 mental image , all of them beamed back to the mission team on Earth for a more elaborate look .
Happy landiversary,@NASAPersevere ! 🥳
What did our robotic explorer accomplish in its 3rd twelvemonth on the Red Planet ?
– move around over 6 miles ( ~10.6 km ) – travel by 1,000 soh – Spotted detritus devils – conduct more than 116 K photos
Explore the rover in 3D : https://t.co / MtTrtWuzUGpic.twitter.com / Jm6uTFjEAR
& mdash ; NASA JPL ( @NASAJPL)February 18 , 2024
persistence ’s activity let in a search for evidence of ancient microbial life on the red satellite . As part of its exploration , the rover has been gathering rock ‘n’ roll and land sampling that will be collected by the upcoming Mars Sample Return Mission and transported to Earth for deliberate analytic thinking in research lab conditions .
A shout - out should also be given to cleverness , the tiny pilotless aircraft - same machine that Perseverance deploy to the martian surface soon after land . In April 2021 , cleverness made history by becoming the first aircraft to execute powered , ensure flight on another planet — no mean exploit considering Mars ’ superthin atmosphere . The helicopter perform right smart better than carry , get to the skies 72 times over nearly three yearsbefore it was rendered inoperablejust last month after sustaining wrong to one of its propellers .
As for Perseverance , it ’s hope that the rover will be able to keep its work for years to come , which is a decided possibility consider that another NASA Mars rover , Curiosity , is still operational nigh 12 years after arriving there .
