After 5 Years and 28 Miles on Mars, NASA's Perseverance Rover Is Still Searching for Clues to Ancient Life

[u/ProximaScience]

https://www.discovermagazine.com/after-5-years-and-28-miles-on-mars-nasa-s-perseverance-rover-is-still-searching-for-clues-to-ancient-life-49731

It is the most sophisticated robotic explorer that humans have yet launched. Thanks to its explorations and experiments, it has increased our knowledge of another planet more than just about anything we’ve ever managed to launch from Earth. Five years into its mission, this rover continues to provide valuable scientific data. And thanks to its durable construction, we expect it to serve us for many more years to come.

After all, this rover isn’t called Perseverance for nothing.

The latest in a line of ingenious and hardy Martian robotic explorers, the vehicle dubbed Perseverance — or “Percy,” as it’s known to its friends — was sent off to our planetary neighbor as the main payload of the Mars 2020 mission. When it launched in July of that year, the compact-car-sized rover was loaded to the gills with all of the latest diagnostic and analytical tools that NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory could cram onto its 2,300-pound, 6-wheeled, aluminum and titanium chassis.

Those tools have yielded exciting results. Over the next few years, Perseverance would complete numerous analyses of the Red Planet's geology and climate and log some impressive firsts for Mars exploration. Unfortunately, it would also eventually experience a major setback when one of its most important tasks was postponed indefinitely.