Perseverance Rover Begins Flexing Its Robotic Arm on Mars

This photo was taken by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Perseverance Mars Rover’s Mastcam-Z image of Santa Cruz Hill within Jezero Crater on the Red Planet on April 29, 2021. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS)

After spending the last two-and-a-half months settling into its new home on the Red Planet and documenting the historic flights of the Mars Ingenuity Helicopter, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Perseverance Mars Rover has begun flexing its instrument-laden robotic arm to conduct science.

The intrepid robot’s cameras, lasers and other equipment have already been put to work studying the floor of Persevereance’s landing site, Jezero Crater, which was once the location of an ancient lake, JPL officials said in a written statement.

“What insights they turn up will help scientists create a timeline of when an ancient lake formed there, when it dried, and when sediment began piling up in the delta that formed in the crater long ago,” according to the statement. “Understanding this timeline should help date rock samples — to be collected later in the mission – that might preserve a record of ancient microbes.”

Studying the geology of Mars will also give scientists a better understanding of its history, and perhaps shed light onto whether the planet ever hosted life.

After examining rocks via the Rover’s cameras and zapping them with lasers to test their chemical makeup.

But many of the rocks have been weathered and eroded over the millennia, requiring scientists to peer inside them to unlock their secrets, Perseverance Project Scientist Ken Farley of Caltech said.

“When you look inside a rock, that’s where you see the story,” he said.

“When scientists find a particularly enticing spot, they can reach out with the rover’s arm and use an abrader to grind and flatten a rock’s surface, revealing its internal structure and composition,” the JPL statement said. “Once they’ve done that, the team gathers more detailed chemical and mineralogical information using arm instruments called PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry) and SHERLOC (Scanning for Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals).”

“The more rocks you look at, the more you know,” Farley added.

The samples that prove most intriguing to scientists will be collected in special tubes and stored ahead of planned retrieval by a future mission. If successful, it will be the first time samples of Martian material have been returned to Earth for study.

Perseverance is tasked with studying Mars in search of signs of ancient life, as well as paving the way for future missions to the Red Planet by both unmanned spacecraft and, one day, astronauts.

More information on the Perseverance Mars Rover can be found online at jpl.nasa.gov/missions/mars-2020-perseverance-rover.

New Mission Ahead for JPL’s Mars Helicopter After It Completes Successful 4th Flight

JPL’s Mars Helicopter Makes 2nd Flight

‘This Really Is a Wright Brothers Moment’: JPL Makes History With Successful Flight of Ingenuity Mars Helicopter

Success! JPL’s Mars Helicopter Makes First Flight

Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Deployed, Survives 1st Frigid Martian Night

JPL’s Perseverance Mars Rover Records Sounds of Itself Driving

Listen: JPL’s Perseverance Rover Records First-Ever Sounds of Mars

JPL’s Perseverance Rover Takes 1st Drive on Mars

JPL’s Perseverance Rover Has Sent Back Nearly 6,400 Photos From Mars

JPL’s Perseverance Rover Sends Back 1st High-Definition, 360-Degree Panorama From Mars

JPL Releases Video of Perseverance Rover’s Landing on Mars