This story is a part of Welcome to Mars, our collection exploring the purple planet.
NASA’s Perseverance rover is popping right into a rideshare for Martian rocks. In early 2022, the rover picked up a rock in its left entrance wheel. That rock remains to be in residence, nevertheless it appears the rover now has a brand new pal, a fair greater rock that discovered its approach into Percy’s proper entrance wheel.
Astrophotographer Simeon Schmauss observed the brand new rock in late February and tweeted a mosaic picture of each rocks within the entrance wheels as seen by Percy’s left and proper hazard avoidance cameras mounted low on the rover.
Early final yr the @NASAPersevere rover picked up a pet rock with its left entrance wheel.
Over all that point it should have been fairly lonely, however yesterday it met a pal which jumped in the suitable entrance wheel to provide it some firm. 🙂
Credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Simeon Schmauß pic.twitter.com/H3aISDo4dB
— Simeon Schmauß (@stim3on) February 28, 2023
The HazCams assist regulate the terrain the rover traverses, they usually’re additionally helpful for monitoring the wheels and, because it seems, holding tabs on rocky hitchhikers. The brand new freeloader appears to have first appeared in a uncooked picture despatched again by the rover on Feb. 27. The digital camera bought a more in-depth, although very shadowed, view of the rock on March 1.
Percy’s older pet rock has traveled with the rover for a lot of miles and has witnessed the gathering of rock samples and the creation of the primary pattern depot on one other world. One among Perseverance’s principal mission targets is assist us perceive whether or not Mars as soon as hosted microbial life. Delivering the rover’s pattern assortment to Earth for nearer research by way of the long run Mars Pattern Return mission is a key a part of this effort.
The brand new wheel rock could stick round, or it could find yourself falling out as Perseverance roves by the Jezero Crater. NASA wasn’t frightened concerning the unique rock, saying final yr that the chunk was “not perceived as a threat.” NASA did not instantly reply to a request for remark.
Mars is a notoriously rocky place, because the sibling Curiosity rover and its roughed-up wheels can attest. NASA reworked the design for Percy’s aluminum wheels so that they’ll maintain as much as the trials of driving throughout an inhospitable panorama.
Maybe the lesson right here is that the actual treasure in Mars exploration is the rock buddies we make alongside the way in which.