NASA’s massive Mars rover Perseverance continues its exploration of the Red Planet. This one carries, without his knowledge, a small Martian rock. This one is stuck in one of its wheels…
Perseverance continues the sampling and analysis of rocks on the Martian soil. The latter has also carried out these operations so many times that certain pieces have become stuck in the carousel processing the samples. NASA has since found a way to get rid of it. But, and this for a good hundred sols – Martian days – the rover is encumbered by a rather large piece of rock. This one is stuck in one of Perseverance’s six wheels…
Good news, however: according to the American space agencyits presence does not damage the wheel in question. Indeed, the place where it got stuck does not hinder the rotation. Eleni Ravanis, a collaborator on NASA’s Perseverance mission, says: This rock does not damage the wheelbut throughout his journey […] he made periodic appearances on our footage from the left Hazcam“. The multiple cameras of the machine made it possible to capture astonishing shots, like that of a human silhouette.
According to the official, Perseverance picked up the “little” Martian pebble on February 4, the rover’s 341st soil on the Red Planet. At the time, the device was exploring a rock formation called “Máaz” which, according to scientists, consists of ancient lava flows. Since then, Perseverance has transported the rock north to its landing site, then west to the remains of an area called “Kodiak”.
NASA Perseverance: The rock should fall on its own
The control team unfortunately did notent no way to remove the rock. NASA hopes that it will fall by itself during a maneuver. Eleni Ravanis clarifies as follows: It is possible that the rock will fall at some point during our future ascent of the crater rim. If so, she will land among rocks that we think are very different from her.«
It’s not not the first time that such an incident occurs on Mars. Indeed, in 2004, the Spirit rover picked up in its right rear wheel what Ravanis described as a pebble the size of a potato. It ended up detaching from the rover a little later. Eleni Ravanis thus indicates: Although it is not known exactly how long these rocks remained in the area, they tended to jump off after a few weeks.« .
To read : March: Perseverance continues to dig for ancient traces of life
Source : space.com