NASA ‘s rover continues its mission on Mars and, as a result of the strange aluminum foil it found in the last few hours, we recount everything it has been discovering on the Red Planet.
Perseverance is one of NASA’s most important current missions . On the Red Planet, the rover has the difficult mission of collecting objects and rocks that could signify past life outside of Earth, an unprecedented event that would change history.
But meanwhile, Perseverance has come across a series of very curious objects that have been portrayed in images and published by NASA to the amazement of all astronomy enthusiasts.
Martian Aluminum Foil
These days, “Percy” found a curious aluminum foil , used for multiple functions on Earth such as cooking.
The photo was taken this Monday, June 13. “That piece of shiny aluminum foil is part of a thermal blanket, a material used to control temperature. It is a surprise to find this here: my descent stage crashed about 2 km away,” the message states. Did the wind blow it here?
My team has spotted something unexpected: It’s a piece of a thermal blanket that they think may have come from my descent stage, the rocket-powered jet pack that set me down on landing day back in 2021. pic.twitter.com/O4rIaEABLu
— NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) June 15, 2022
your own waste
Thanks to his own helicopter, Ingenuity, Perseverance has also stumbled upon its wreckage that ended up shattered after landing.
In early May, the tiny spacecraft was able to photograph the parachute and rear casing that helped it and NASA ‘s Perseverance rover land inside the Red Planet’s Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021.
“Perseverance had the best-documented Mars landing in history, with cameras showing everything from parachute inflation to landing,” said Ian Clark of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, former systems engineer for Perseverance and now the ascent phase of Mars Sample Return.
a green mineral
One of the cargoes the Perseverance keeps for delivery to the relevant pickup mission is a mysterious “greenish ore”.
“My latest sample is from a rock loaded with the greenish mineral olivine,” the rover’s official Twitter account wrote in an update, “and my science team has several ideas as to how it got there.” Minerals like basalt and olivine are commonly found in solidified pieces of lava or magna on Earth, known as igneous rocks.
NASA scientists are trying to find a correlation between olivine and carbonates, special minerals that typically form when carbon dioxide interacts with liquid water.
Another little piece of Mars to carry with me.
My latest sample is from a rock loaded with the greenish mineral olivine, and there are several ideas among my science team about how it got there. Hypotheses are flying! Science rules. #SamplingMars https://t.co/L6lhCNdqWq pic.twitter.com/bFXxExhS1P
— NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) November 16, 2021
A solar eclipse from Mars
NASA ‘s Perseverance rover captured a cosmic event in the Martian sky. Mars’ moon Phobos was captured eclipsing the Sun.
The eclipse was captured with Perseverance ‘s next-generation Mastcam-Z camera , the cosmic event lasted just over 40 seconds, much less than a typical solar eclipse between the Moon and Earth.
But beyond this… Science!
In its early days, Perseverance was able to record sounds and transmit them to the inhabitants of Earth.
So far, Perseverance has covered more than four kilometers , including a record 500 meters in a single weekend. The goal of the mission is to take some 40 well-chosen samples over six years . The goal is for another mission to bring them back to Earth in the 2030s.
The first evidence collected by the robot suggests to NASA that they are of volcanic origin and that, indeed, would prove that Jezero had a lake many years ago. What else will Perseverance reveal to us on her journey?