The most important task of perseverance begins now

Briefly:

• Perseverance begins with its geological work.
• The goal is still to find traces of ancient life;
• Rock analysis can reveal biomarkers.

Perseverance works hard

On its arrival on Mars in February, NASA’s robot has already performed many tasks. In particular, it provided scientists with weather reports, traveled its first few meters, recorded sounds, produced oxygen, and observed the drone in flight. In fact, it served as a communications base for commanding helicopter operations, a mission that kept the rover very busy. Perseverance, in addition to presenting him with videos and photos, documented the thefts that his fellow citizen suffered.

The real action begins

The rover now embarks on its most important mission of analyzing rocks inside the Jezero Crater that was submerged in water. This endeavor is important to scientists because these pebbles can mask vital fingerprints. With its tools, Perseverance will try to determine if it is sedimentary or igneous rocks. The first type becomes more interesting because it can contain traces of life.

Pebbles are witnessing history

Scientists will carefully analyze the data gathered by perseverance so that they can piece the history of the red planet together. WATSON, a robotic arm end-of-camera, captured extremely detailed shots of the ground. Next, a laser called SuperCam enables identification of the chemical elements of these rocks. Researchers want to find deposits that are more likely to reveal valuable information related to past life forms.

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