Set as Homepage - Add to Favorites

【Michael Maien】

Source：Creation Information Network Editor：Life Time：2025-06-26 11:17:00

NASA's car-sized Perseverance rover is Michael Maienmaking a hard slog.

The space agency's robot is fighting both steep and slippery terrain as it ascends the wall of Mars' Jezero Crater, the site of once vigorously flowing water. The Mars rover is headed to more sites that may reveal whether the Red Planet ever hosted microbial life. It took advantage of the elevation to capture an expansive vista of its 3.5-year-journey.

"The image not only shows our past and present, but also shows the biggest challenge to getting where we want to be in the future," Rick Welch, Perseverance’s deputy project manager, said in a statement. "If you look at the right side of the mosaic, you begin to get an idea what we’re dealing with. Mars didn’t want to make it easy for anyone to get to the top of this ridge."

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!
You May Also Like
SEE ALSO: Aliens haven't contacted us. Scientists found a compelling reason why.

The mosaic below shows dozens of sites of exploration significance (as well as other Mars landmarks) as Perseverance and its six metallic tires rumbled across the Martian desert — a place now 1,000times drier than the driest desert on Earth. The labels can be tough to read, so the broad vista is followed up by two close-ups: An area showing where NASA's experimental and record-breaking Ingenuity helicopter crashed, and the region where the rover dramatically landed in 2021.

An annotated image from the Perseverance rover showing significant spots on the robot's journey through the Jezero Crater.An annotated image from the Perseverance rover showing significant spots on the robot's journey through the Jezero Crater. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / MSSS At center-right, the "Ingenuity" label shows where the small robotic helicopter rests in the desert after 72 successful flights.At center-right, the "Ingenuity" label shows where the small robotic helicopter rests in the desert after 72 successful flights. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / MSSS At center, the location of the Perseverance rover's landing site in 2021.At center, the location of the Perseverance rover's landing site in 2021. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / MSSS

Along its journey through Jezero Crater this year, the rover discovered a curious leopard-spotted rock that incited profound scientific interest. The unique white splotches may have been created by microbial organisms. "The rock exhibits chemical signatures and structures that could possibly have been formed by life billions of years ago when the area being explored by the rover contained running water," NASA said in a statement. But, crucially, much more research, over many years, is needed to confirm this possibility. The sample collected by the rover must be brought back to Earth — a highly complex and costly Mars Sample Return mission the agency is currently assessing.

Related Stories
  • NASA scientist viewed first Voyager images. What he saw gave him chills.
  • En route to an asteroid, spacecraft snaps ghostly views of Earth
  • One of humanity's best telescopes snapped a stunning image of deep space
  • NASA spacecraft keeps on going faster and faster and faster
  • If a scary asteroid will actually strike Earth, here's how you'll know

Ascending the crater's edge has proven daunting. The sand is loose, and the heavy rover slips. "For every two steps forward Perseverance takes, we were taking at least one step back," Camden Miller, the rover's remote driver, explained. The team has tried driving backwards up the steep terrain, and has crisscrossed back and forth across the slope, "switchbacking" like hikers traveling up a mountain.

Once the rover completes its ascent, it will sleuth out more sites that may hold clues to Mars' past climate and habitability. In the future, Martian missions will also search the planet's subsurface for hints of life: Life may have teemed, or even currently teem, in subsurface areas protected from the planet's extreme radiation and cold.

Topics NASA

Previous：Is it 'Thunderbolts*' or *The New Avengers'?

Next：Best Max streaming deal: Save 20% on annual subscriptions

Related Articles
Related Recommendations
Categories
Latest Articles
Popular Articles
Hot Recommendations
Featured Column

Quick Links

Japan gives $2.4 billion in incentives to Toyota and more for battery making · TechNodeSpain hands $146 million to Stellantis’s battery project with CATL · TechNodeBYD touts progress in automated driving with refreshed Han sedan · TechNodeChina's Chery reportedly mulls second European factory in the UK · TechNodeSeasun Games’s Mecha BREAK showcases NVIDIA’s AI NPC technology at Gamescom 2024 · TechNodeStarbucks releases Douyin miniLidar maker Robosense posts reduced loss, expects to break even by 2026 · TechNodeChina’s MiniMax introduces company's first SoraMazda’s China JV to invest $1.4 billion in major EV push · TechNodeXiaomi smartphone to debut Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 next month · TechNodeChina drafts national law on labeling AINetEase Cloud Music suffers twoIntel debuts Core Ultra 200V series processors, Lenovo to unveil new AINokia cuts 2,000 jobs in China for costIndonesia’s GoTo to use cloud services from Alibaba Cloud in a fiveVolkswagen may close Chinese joint plant · TechNodeTSMC and Samsung consider major chip manufacturing plants in UAE · TechNodeLidar maker Robosense posts reduced loss, expects to break even by 2026 · TechNodeiFLYTEK launches Spark Multilingual Model and Spark 4.0 Turbo · TechNodeChina’s MiniMax introduces company's first Sora March 21 Is World Puppetry Day 'Quordle' today: See each 'Quordle' answer and hints for September 18, 2023 Amazon's second Prime Day announced for October— here's what we know Botero’s “Adam,” the Sculpture New Yorkers Love to Touch Presenting “Big, Bent Ears,” A New Multimedia Project The iPhone 15 Pro Max may not be easy to get this year. Here's why. Victor Moscoso on Zap Comix, Learning, and Unlearning Remembering St. Nicholas Magazine for Children YouTube TV's missing channels are back after Google and Disney made a deal Herman Melville, Master of the Literary Hoax How to avoid sex toy injuries YouTube demonetizes Russell Brand's channel following allegations Steven Crowder is one strike away from a permanent ban on YouTube Novels Are Made of Words: Moby P. G. Wodehouse Will Squash You Like a Bug Is the Legend of Zelda Even a Legend? Games and Storytelling 11 creative ways to use a water bottle instead of recycling it Be Dangerous: Robert Frost on “Meet the Press” Best Amazon Echo Show deal: Get a refurbished Echo Show up to 47% off Nabokov Knew How to Hate a Party

2.5022s , 10133.5390625 kb

Copyright © 2025 Powered by 【Michael Maien】,Creation Information Network  

Sitemap

Top

Quick Links