As part of its mission, the rover would characterise the Red Planet’s geology and past climate, and pave the way for human exploration of Mars.
NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover has performed its first drive on Mars, covering 21.3 feet (6.5 meters) across the Martian landscape. The drive served as a mobility test that marks just one of many milestones as team members check out and calibrate every system, subsystem, and instrument on Perseverance. Once the rover begins pursuing its science goals, regular commutes extending 656 feet (200 meters) or more are expected.
Anais Zarifian, Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mobility testbed engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California said: “When it comes to wheeled vehicles on other planets, there are few first-time events that measure up in significance to that of the first…
