NEW YORK (AP) — NASA’s Perseverance rover is tackling a steep new problem on Mars.The six-wheeled rover has spent the final 3 1/2 years roaming across the backside of a crater. On Tuesday, it all started hiking to the highest.The rover will cross up 1,000 toes (305 meters) to the rim of Jezero Crater to dig up rock samples. Since touchdown at the purple planet in 2021, Perseverance has accrued 22 rock core samples from the ground of the crater, which used to be as soon as full of water.The rover’s samples might lend a hand scientists piece in combination what the planet’s local weather gave the look of billions of years in the past — and be informed whether or not any historical Martian existence lurked. NASA is exploring techniques to deliver the rock samples to Earth.The bedrock on the rim of the crater would possibly yield clues as to how rocky planets like Mars and Earth got here to be, mentioned Steven Lee with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
However the street forward received’t be simple. Perseverance will scale rocky terrain and slopes of as much as 23 levels at the monthslong adventure.“Perseverance has indisputably been an actual trooper,” mentioned Lee. The rover has logged round 18 miles (29 kilometers) right through its exploration.
The rock on the most sensible of the crater can have come from previous hydrothermal vents — websites the place heated water and dissolved minerals spewed out after biking beneath the planet’s floor. On Earth, identical websites — like at Yellowstone Nationwide Park — are regarded as a cradle for existence.___The Related Press Well being and Science Division receives improve from the Howard Hughes Scientific Institute’s Science and Tutorial Media Team. The AP is just liable for all content material.
