NASA Mars Rover Delivers Triumphant First Photos From Crater’s ‘Lookout Hill’
It was a long and difficult climb, but NASA’s Perseverance rover did it. The wheeled Mars rover reaches the rim of Jezero Crater and stops to admire the view. The first photos taken by the rover on “Lookout Hill” on December 10 show hills, ridges, scattered rocks and hazy skies. The rover looked over the edge and back at the wheel tracks. This marks the beginning of a new scientific campaign following the rover’s adventure inside the crater.
On December 10, NASA’s Perseverance rover took the first image of the rim of Jezero Crater from a site called “Lookout Hill.”
Perseverance landed in Jezero Crater in early 2021 and has been exploring ancient river deltaestablished organic molecules and created a collection rock sample NASA hopes to one day bring it back to Earth for closer study.
“During the rim climb at Jezero Crater, our rover pilots performed an outstanding job navigating some of the toughest terrain they have encountered since landing,” said Steven Lee, Perseverance deputy project manager. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory statement December 12th.
NASA’s Perseverance rover captured the view below the slopes of Jezero Crater. The rover’s wheel tracks show its path as it crawls toward the edge.
Mars presented many challenges to Perseverance as it climbed to the basket. It took the rover 3.5 months to ascend to an altitude of 1,640 vertical feet. It needs to cope with 20% slopes and smooth surfaces. The combination of steepness and slipperiness meant the rover team tried a variety of strategies to get up the slope. Planners tested backward travel, zigzag travel and a route that would give the rover more purchasing power.
“No Mars rover mission has ever attempted to climb such a large mountain so quickly,” JPL rover pilot Camden Miller said Late October.
all the best. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has released a panoramic view of the landscape taken days before Perseverance reached the summit. The panorama highlights the steep terrain the rover must travel.
Perseverance is now launching a new “North Loop” science campaign. NASA has already made plans for the first year of the event. The rover is expected to travel 4 miles and visit four specific geological sites. It will also collect more samples as the process proceeds.
New wonders await you. “This marks our transition from rocks that partially filled Jezero Crater when it was formed by a massive impact about 3.9 billion years ago, to rocks that came from deep within Mars and were thrown up after the impact to form the crater rim,” said the Perseverance Project Scientists are willing to say Fali.
Video from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory shows a proposed path along the edge.
The first major target is “Witch Hazel Mountain,” a layered outcrop of “scientific significance.” These layers represent a glimpse into Mars’ past. “As we drive down, we’ll be traveling back in time to investigate ancient Martian environments recorded at the crater rim,” said Candace Bedford, Perseverance scientist at Purdue University.
Farley said the rocks the team hopes to investigate during this campaign are among the oldest found in the solar system. They can tell us a lot about early Mars and help us understand early Earth. Mars and Earth are both rocky planets, albeit on very different paths. Earth became habitable for life as we know it, while Mars became uninhabitable.
One of the rover’s big science goals is to help answer the question of whether microbial life once existed on Mars long ago. have found some promising rockbut scientists need to examine them themselves. Meanwhile, Perseverance continues to explore new heights.
