Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Space
  3. News

Watch Perseverance rover pulling its first moves on Mars

By

Following two weeks of self-administered health checks on the surface of Mars, NASA’s Perseverance rover is close to beginning its highly anticipated hunt for signs of past life on the red planet.

Recommended Videos

Two posts on the rover’s official Twitter account on Thursday, March 4, showed the high-tech mobile laboratory pulling a few moves as part of crucial tests to ensure everything’s in good working order following the vehicle’s six-and-a-half-month journey from Earth.

Related

“This week I’ve been doing lots of health checkouts, getting ready to get to work,” the rover tweeted alongside a short clip showing it moving around for the first time in more than half a year. “I’ve checked many tasks off my list, including instrument tests, imaging, and getting my arm moving. Warming up for a marathon of science.”

This week I’ve been doing lots of health checkouts, getting ready to get to work. I’ve checked many tasks off my list, including instrument tests, imaging, and getting my arm moving. Warming up for a marathon of science. pic.twitter.com/A0aqhWVo5T

— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) March 3, 2021

A little while later, another clip appeared showing one of the rover’s six wheels turning back and forth, with the message, “A quick test of my steering, and things are looking good as I get ready to roll. My team and I are keen to get moving. One step at a time.”

A quick test of my steering, and things are looking good as I get ready to roll. My team and I are keen to get moving. One step at a time. pic.twitter.com/XSYfT158AQ

— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) March 5, 2021

With most of the checks now complete — and no reports of any anomalies from NASA’s California-based Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is overseeing the mission — Perseverance could be just days away from making its first tentative drive across the surface of Jezero Crater where the rover touched down in dramatic fashion on February 18, 2021.

One of the main goals of the mission is to search the planet for signs of past life. Jezero Crater was once filled with water and so is thought to offer an excellent chance of making such a discovery.

As the first rover equipped with a sample-gathering system, Perseverance will also package interesting rock and soil samples for transportation to Earth by a future mission. This will allow scientists to examine the material with more powerful instruments to verify any discoveries that the rover makes during its two-year mission.

Perseverance is also carrying with it a small helicopter called Ingenuity that in a few months’ time should become the first device to take flight on another planet.

There’s a lot to look forward to with NASA’s latest Mars mission, so be sure to check back for regular updates.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
See a 3D view of a martian crater captured by the Perseverance rover
A snippet of the mosaic of Belva Crater taken by the Perseverance rover.

The Jezero crater on Mars, where NASA's Perseverance is currently exploring, is vast at nearly 30 miles across and was likely created by a huge asteroid impact. But there wasn't just one asteroid impact -- it's thought that several asteroids hit the area over millions of years, creating a succession of craters that overlap and fit within each other.

A snippet of the mosaic of Belva Crater taken by the Perseverance rover. NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

Read more
Perseverance rover finds evidence of an ancient river on Mars
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover captured this mosaic of a hill nicknamed “Pinestand.” Scientists think the tall sedimentary layers stacked on top of one another here could have been formed by a deep, fast-moving river.

The Perseverance rover has been exploring Mars's Jezero Crater as part of its mission to search for evidence of ancient life on Mars. The history of water is key in the search for life, and it is currently thought that Mars lost its water around 4 million years ago. Now, the rover has identified evidence of what was once one of the deepest and fast-flowing rivers yet discovered on the planet.

The rover captured a series of hundreds of images using its Mastcam-Z instrument, which were put together into this mosaic showing a hill structure called Pinestand. In the image, you can see the many layers left behind by the flowing river, which were formed by deposits of sediment.

Read more
Watch a replica of NASA’s Mars helicopter take flight on Earth
NASA's Ingenuity helicopter.

Visitors to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California at the weekend got to see a life-sized replica of the Ingenuity Mars helicopter take flight.

Ingenuity made history in April 2021 when it became the first aircraft to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet. It’s since gone on to complete more than 50 Mars flights and has even assisted NASA’s ground-based Perseverance rover by taking aerial images to help the JPL team plan safe and efficient routes across the Martian surface.

Read more