The Perseverance Rover is "doing great" and successfully transmitting data back to Earth after a soft landing on the surface of Mars, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) engineers told a press conference at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California on Friday.
"The Rover is doing great on the surface of Mars and continues to be highly functional and awesome and I'm exhilarated," mission operations system manager Pauline Hwang said. "Power system is nominal. Yesterday we had three highly successful ULF relay passes. We got more Rover engineering data and imagery. We processed more camera images."
The Rover has already transmitted its first photographs to Earth, exciting scientists with its view of rocks that appear to have large numbers of small holes caused by sedimentary or volcanic processes, Hwang said. But it would be at least 60 "solar" or Martian days which are slightly longer than Earth ones before its helicopter Ingenuity would fly, she said.
"Once we get into surface flight software, we will get into the next upgrades. [The] earliest we can do helicopter flights may be till Sol 60 (60 Martian days) if we're super fast. There is still work to go to find a 'helicopter pad,' a good site for the helicopter to fly from," she said.
On Saturday, NASA engineers will check out more of the Rover's instruments and raise its communications mast, Hwang said. A primary objective for the mission is to search for signs of ancient microbial life. The Rover will also study Mars' geology and past climate and be the first mission to collect and cache the planet's rocks, NASA said.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dear Reader,
Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.
We, however, have a request.
As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.
Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.
Digital Editor
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU