Since January, NASA’s Perseverance rover has been tracking the south side of Neretva Vallis, which is likely the fossil of a river that fed the rover’s landing site in Jezero Crater.
In the distance, Perseverance’s operators could see a glimmer of its next destination: Bright Angel, named for light-colored outcrops that may be ancient rocks previously discovered by the running river.
But what was a relatively smooth ride turned into a huge effort when the Perseverance rolled into a field of unexpected rocks. After days of hard work, the decision was made to reroute Perseverance across the dune field and across the river channel. It proved the right decision: now, Perseverance has finally landed the Bright Angel.
“We were watching the river channel just to the north as we headed, hoping to find a section where the dunes were small and far enough for a rover to pass between them,” said Evan Graser, an engineer helping to plan Perseverance’s route. in a permit. “Perseverance also needed an entrance ramp that we could walk on safely. When the images showed both, we created a direct line to it.”
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Perseverance depends on Automatic navigationIt is the system that allows the vehicle to move on its own. Where earlier Mars Rovers require full control of… Land, Perseverance’s guides can give it a general route, and AutoNav will take care of the minute-to-minute guidance. Initially, AutoNav could only navigate around rocks on Perseverance’s path. But the rocks soon became too large for the system to handle.
“What used to be an average flight of more than a hundred meters per Martian day dropped to only tens of metres. It was frustrating,” Graser said in the statement.
To the north of Perseverance’s path, a field of Martian dunes separates it from the floor of the river channel. If Perseverance can cross the dune, it can leave rocks behind. However, navigating through these sand dunes is risky, as Martian sand has a way of trapping rovers — just ask Spirit, which I got stuck In 2009. Fortunately, these dunes were small and widespread enough to plot a path through.
Now in the river channel, the probe can cover about 200 meters (650 feet) per day on Mars. The new session was fortunate for scientific reasons as well. In the middle of the channel, Perseverance encountered so-called Mount Washburn, a rocky hill that presented scientists with exciting geological opportunities. One of them was a strange rock that scientists believe may be the product of a magma pool beneath the surface.
Then, after reaching a slope near the northern edge of the canal, Perseverance turned west.
Four Martian days later, the spacecraft arrived at Bright Angel and began analyzing its rocks. This begs the question: Should Perseverance collect a rock sample here?
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