On February 18, the Perseverance rover celebrates the second anniversary of its descent to the surface of Mars in 2021. The incredible process of traveling was followed all over the world. The descent to the surface of the Red Planet was especially memorable thanks to the amazing video taken from the rover. The landing took place in the Jezero crater, where an expedition immediately began to collect geologically diverse rock samples that could help answer the question of whether there was ancient microbial life on Mars.
JPL and NASA have created an excellent video to celebrate the anniversary of the Perseverance landing. During the time-lapse shooting, you can see different rocks being studied by the rover using a robotic arm and sensors.
Tomorrow is my two-year anniversary of landing on Mars. Time flies when you’re having fun (i.e., doing literally millions of science tasks)!
Get geeky and dive into the numbers: https://t.co/YNje1rS3i5
Or celebrate in other fun ways: https://t.co/30gDJhc1o1 pic.twitter.com/euXmCxKRiR
— NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) February 17, 2023
During its two years in the harsh conditions of Mars, Perseverance traveled almost 15 km, and also collected and hid 18 containers with samples of rocks, regolith and even the Martian atmosphere, which would later be collected and delivered to Earth during the upcoming Mars Sample Return mission to return samples.
Perseverance also deployed the Ingenuity Martian helicopter on Mars, created oxygen from carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, recorded the sounds of Mars for the first time, riding along the bottom of the Jezero crater and walked to the site of the ancient river delta and took some stunning images.
Interesting figures
To celebrate a milestone in the exploration of Mars, NASA has shared interesting figures from the Perseverance expedition:
- Selected and sealed 18 samples of the rock;
- Deployed depot of 10 sample containers;
- SuperCam scientific instrument fired 230,554 laser shots;
- 676,828 sensing by RIMFAX georadar (Radar Imager for Mars’ Subsurface Experiment) was performed to study underground rock layers;
- Recorded 662 audio records of Mars with a SuperCam microphone;
- Recorded 15,769 hours of weather data on Mars by the MEDA device (Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer);
- Created 4,337,010 laser marks by the SHERLOC tool;
- 33 spectroscopic observations were made by the SHERLOC instrument;
- 64 times the robotic arm was completely removed and deployed;
- Drills were replaced 48 times in a drill for the collection of rock samples;
- 166 thousand images taken by seven scientific and nine engineering cameras on board Perseverance.
“Behind each figure there are many opinions and efforts of the most talented group of the Perseverance team. We have come this long way together and will continue the expedition to make interesting discoveries and learn more about Mars,” said Art Thompson, Perseverance project manager at JPL.
Earlier we reported on how Perseverance celebrated its first Martian birthday.
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