The Perseverance rover befriended a pet rock about 4 months in the past, and the 2 have been inseparable ever since.
A rock discovered its manner into the rover’s left entrance wheel in early February because it roamed the Purple Planet, in response to the left digital camera to keep away from Perseverance hazards.
In 4 months, the rock has traveled greater than eight.5 kilometers (5.three miles) by means of the rugged terrain. He joined the mission through the marketing campaign to discover Jezero Crater, the location of an historical lake and river delta, the place NASA scientists surveyed rocks from a formation the crew refers to as “Maaz.” .
The boulder accompanied Perseverance north to Octavia E. Butler’s touchdown website earlier than turning west to the remnants of a delta scientists name “Kodiak,” after which to the western Jezero delta.
The present focus of the Mars rover is to drill cores and look at the sedimentary rocks across the delta space. These rocks have been created billions of years in the past when there was water within the space, in response to NASA.
Spinning the rover’s wheel, Perseverance’s pet rock is not affecting operations, and it stays to be seen how lengthy the robotic explorer’s new buddy will stick round.
If the pet rock falls and says goodbye to the rover, it will likely be removed from residence, surrounded by unusual and unknown rocks.
Spirit and Curiosity pet rocks
Perseverance is not the primary Mars rover to undertake a rock as a pet.
The Spirit rover, which was energetic from 2004 to 2010, had a potato-sized stone lodged in its proper rear wheel early in its journey. The stone stopped the wheel, so NASA scientists needed to take away it.
The Curiosity rover was no stranger to hitchhiking on rocks and had a number of stones in its proper entrance wheel for weeks. The rover started touring the crimson planet in mid-2012 and remains to be operational.
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