Since January, the Perseverance rover NASA has been exploring the south side of Neretva Vallispossibly the fossil of an ancient river Perseverance operators had their sights on your next destination: Bright Angelnamed for its light-hued outcrops that could be ancient rocks discovered by the ancient river.
martian odyssey
The journey, initially smooth, turned into a struggle when Perseverance encountered a field of unexpected rocks. After days of arduous progress, it was decided to redirect the rover through a field of dunes and the riverbed, a decision that turned out to be correct. Finally, Perseverance has arrived at the Bright Angel destination.
“We’ve been watching the riverbed to the north as we moved, hoping to find a section where the dunes were small and far enough apart that the rover could pass between them,” said Evan Graser, engineer helping plan Perseverance’s route.
“Perseverance also needed an entrance ramp that we could descend safely. “When the images showed both, we headed straight there,” the engineer added.
Risky self-driving
Perseverance is based on AutoNav, a system that allows the rover to navigate autonomously. While previous rovers in Mars required full control from Earth, Perseverance guides can give you a general route and AutoNav handles the minute-by-minute direction.
At first, AutoNav was able to go around the rocks in Perseverance’s path, but soon the rocks became too large for the system to handle. «What had been covered by more than a hundred meters per Martian day was reduced to only tens of meters. It was frustrating,” Graser said.
North of Perseverance’s course, a field of Martian dunes separated it from the bottom of the river channel. If Perseverance managed to cross the dunes, it could leave the rocks behind.
Navigating through these dunes is risky, since the martian sands they can catch rovers, as happened to Spirit in 2009. Fortunately, these dunes were small and spaced enough for Perseverance to chart a course through them.
Objective reached
Now, in the river channel, Perseverance can cover about 200 meters per Martian day. The new route was also fortunate for scientific reasons. In the middle of the channel, Perseverance found the so-called Mount Washburna rocky hill that presented exciting geological opportunities, such as a curious rock that scientists speculate could be the product of a deposit of underground magma.
Then, reaching a cliff near the northern edge of the channel, Perseverance turned west. Four Martian days later, the rover reached Bright Angel and began analyzing its rocks. We will eagerly await the results of these analyses.
