NASA’s Perseverance rover has been surveying Mars since February 18, 2021 to study the surface of the red planet. He had made a friend a few days after his landing, a pebble he was carrying in one of his wheels. After a year of adventures, his friend unfortunately left him…
Space exploration returned in a prosperous period. The most impressive events unfold before our eyes like the world’s largest rocket from SpaceX which exploded during its first flight test, while NASA announced earlier this month the 4 astronauts who will fly to the Moon in 2024. Others are a little less important, like the radio of this taxi which interferes with the International Space Station, but deserve their place in the history of the conquest of the stars just as much.
The somewhat special friend of NASA’s Perseverance rover
So today is sad news from Mars, from NASA’s Perseverance rover. He has lost a longtime friend. For 427 Martian days (also called “sols”), Perseverance had been carrying a pebble in its left front wheel. Space enthusiasts had followed the tribulations of this rock which, for more than a year, accompanied Perseverance over the hills and sands of the Martian landscape.
Unfortunately, Dr. Gwénaël Caravaca reports that his team, working with the rover’s SuperCam instrument, discovered overnight that the rock had been lost in the last Hazcam image. “It spent 427 sols with us (over an Earth year!) and traveled about 10 km from sol 341“, tweeted Gwénaël Caravaca. “Farewell rocky friend, you will be missed!“
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The boulder had made its first appearance in early February 2022 on Earth, or around sol 341 of Perseverance’s lifespan on Mars. Like a loyal friend, had stayed with the rover all this time. NASA explained that the stone caused no damage and that she could stay as long as she wanted with her new mechanized friend. This is because pebbles can enter the wheels when the rover descends slopes, or when the rover moves over soft ground and its weight breaks the rock into pieces.
