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Questions tagged [perseverance]

Perseverance is a NASA Mars rover launched in July 2020 and landed in Jezero crater in February 2021. Use with the [mars] tag when asking about the environment it's in. Use with [ingenuity] when asking about its helicopter drone.

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28 votes
8 answers
8k views

Can we power things (like cars or similar rovers) on earth in the same way Perseverance generates power?

I was watching a video on the engineering of Perseverance and it states that the rover is powered by 4.8kg of Plutonium Dioxide. I was wondering if that similar process of electricity generation can ...
1 vote
0 answers
149 views

Interpretation of mars rover images

I’ve been obsessed with the perseverance images, specially the images from the SHERLOC-WATSON system- the UV camera tricked out with racing stripes and fuzzy dice hanging from its rear-view mirror (...
10 votes
1 answer
2k views

Why is there no microscope on the Mars 2020 rover?

Good magnification microscopes seem both light and cheap. As far as I could find out, there hasn't ever been one on any Mars rovers. The closest I could find is the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) which ...
11 votes
1 answer
517 views

Perseverance individual sample collection post-mission; what stops them from blowing away or getting covered and hidden by dust?

I have been seeing videos that the plan after Perseverance is done collecting samples to distribute them in 'strategic' locations around Mars for another rover to drive around and pick up later. Why ...
3 votes
2 answers
258 views

After one year exploring Jezero's crater floor, has there been any investigation into the presence of trace elements with PIXL?

PIXL instrument chart sample Credit:NASA/JPL-CALTECH Of course PIXL has been used already in Jezero crater, but as far as I know only to identify mineral compositions and textures, as described in ...
3 votes
2 answers
2k views

Could Perseverance survive if Ingenuity failed?

They both landed successfully and ingenuity was deployed. Perseverance drove away, and then Ingenuity failed. Could Perseverance survive on its own?
7 votes
1 answer
2k views

Could Ingenuity survive if Perseverance failed?

For the purposes of this question, we will assume that they both landed successfully. Ingenuity was deployed properly. Then, Perseverance drove away, and then Perserverance say hit a large rock and ...
13 votes
0 answers
458 views

What would be the disadvantages in Ingenuity accompanying Perseverance at a safe distance when the flight test program has been a success?

This answer to the question "How long could the Mars helicopter Ingenuity keep up with the Perseverance rover if it wanted to?" reasons that indeed it could for years ! But according to the ...
3 votes
1 answer
130 views

Were the distances traversed by Perseverance on Sol 718 and 719 each exactly 415.27 m or were they added together 415.27 m and if so, why?

The image above is an annotated screenshot of a part of the Perseverance location map. On the location map the white line represents the trajectory that Perseverance has traveled in Jezero crater. ...
10 votes
1 answer
1k views

What is pictured in this SHERLOC camera?

This picture was taken by one of the cameras on the Perseverance rover. What is pictured here ? And what is the purpose of this image?
2 votes
1 answer
175 views

Since pure Platinum is found in alluvial deposits on Earth, could it not be detected by Perseverance on or near the fan-delta deposit in Jezero?

Platinum is an extremely rare metal, occurring at a concentration of 0.005 ppm in Earth's crust, but in some alluvial deposits it is often found chemically uncombined as native platinum and as an ...
2 votes
1 answer
210 views

Why not bring an extra rover with an ExoMars drill unit to Jezero to have a far better chance to get biosignatures for the sample return mission?

In an interview in the recent article Mars Has So Much Radiation, Any Signs of Life Would Be Buried Six Feet Under physicist Alexander Pavlov of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center tells that he and ...
7 votes
2 answers
585 views

How tall are the "cliffs of the delta" in the Perseverance rover's landing ellipse?

edit: For all the cliff-doubters in comments, here's a quote of Project Scientist Ken Farley in the new NASA video After the Landing: An Update about NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover after ...
3 votes
2 answers
266 views

Will Perseverance settle the question of life on Mars?

Here are a couple press conferences that summarize what Perseverance has found so far. Press conference: Ten months of Perseverance: Jezero science News Briefing: NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover ...
9 votes
1 answer
211 views

Is MOXIE's oxygen ready to breathe or is there CO2 and/or CO that would need to be scrubbed?

MOXIE splits two molecules of martian carbon dioxide into two molecules of carbon monoxide and one molecule of oxygen. Breathing elevated levels of CO2 ranges from unpleasant (to say the least and ...
1 vote
1 answer
93 views

How far away is Jezero crater from Isidis Planitia? Can Perserverance go to Isidis Planitia?

according to this map Beagle 2's landing site (Isidis Plantina) isn't (too) far from Jezero Crater (landing site of rover Perserverance) If the rover were to turn around towards the location of Isidis ...
6 votes
1 answer
103 views

Which were the more than 60 (!) candidate locations for the Mars 2020 rover?

Four years ago I asked for the 21 potential landing sites for the Mars 2020 mission in this question, but now I've learned that there were more than 60 candidate locations ! From NASA Announces ...
2 votes
0 answers
135 views

Why will the next missions to Mars not search for past life where once deep-water hydrothermal vents were?

The iron-sulfur world theory and the deep sea vent hypothesis are among the most popular ones to explain the origin of life on Earth. This article (Michalski J et al. Ancient hydrothermal seafloor ...
1 vote
0 answers
99 views

How does the wind behave throughout the day in Jezero Crater? (worried about Ingenuity)

JPL tweet links to mars.nasa.gov's Flying on Mars Is Getting Harder and Harder which explains that seasonal changes are lowering the density of the local atmosphere, presumably due to warmer seasonal ...
4 votes
0 answers
139 views

Did they figure out what caused the "high-pitched scratching noise" that Perseverance recorded with its microphone? Was it static discharge?

In NASA's SoundCloud account there is Sounds of Perseverance Mars Rover Driving – Sol 16 (16 minutes) (for example between 01:30 and ...
7 votes
2 answers
303 views

Difference between "mafic floor" and "olivine-bearing floor" in Jezero crater? (Perseverance landing site)

Figure 3: Main geologic units within Jezero crater shown on a basemap constructed from images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance ...
4 votes
1 answer
500 views

Download all Perseverance Raw Images

I want to make an archive of all the Raw Images Percy will make during her mission. I would love to have separate folders for each Sol. The plan is to run a script which then grabs the images from the ...
3 votes
2 answers
698 views

Why are there different types of fiducial markers on Perseverance?

I have noticed that there are different types of fiducial markers on Preseverance. While I have seen the round markers on other rovers before, it is the first time that I see the rectengular markers. ...
5 votes
0 answers
207 views

Did the Perseverance sky crane kick up more dust than expected?

The video of the Perseverance landing showed the rover descending into a cloud of dust kicked up by the landing rockets. This is not surprising, but I always had the understanding that one of the ...
4 votes
1 answer
304 views

How to get MARS2020/Perseverance EDL trajectory data from spice kernels?

For MSL EDL it is available this answer: How to retrieve MSL EDL trajectory using Javascript and webgeocalc API? How can I adapt it to MARS2020/Perseverance?
3 votes
1 answer
107 views

Have any Mars surface spacecraft had downward-pointing radiometers to measure the surface temperature? (not air temperature)

NASA's Insight; Weather gives us regular weather updates from Insight's location on Mars, an example is shown below. Temperature is of the air around the lander. Question: But does or has Insight or ...
3 votes
2 answers
347 views

Could there be caves on Mars in the areas inside Jezero crater and the watershed west and north of it where the Mg carbonates are detected?

Both images above are screenshots from Fig. 1 of the article Formation of Magnesium Carbonates on Earth and Implications for Mars The green coloured regions indicate where Mg carbonates were detected, ...
3 votes
1 answer
636 views

What are the regularly spaced spots on this piece of material on the surface of Mars?

This image is a part of the Image of the week, a photo acquired by the Perseverance rover's Mastcam-Z camera and selected by public vote. To me it seems like a piece of styrofoam and with a closer ...
5 votes
3 answers
987 views

What could be the cause of the extraordinary high Fe counts from the PIXL instrument onboard the Perseverance rover?

In this answer a table is showed with all the elements that were detected by the PIXL instrument on 2 occasions, namely sol 140 and sol 167. As could be expected, X-ray counts were high for Si (...
10 votes
2 answers
278 views

What could Perseverance listening to Ingenuity reveal?

On 2021 May 7, the science lead for Perseverance's SuperCam Mars microphone said about that microphone's recording of a flight of the Ingenuity helicopter: We had carried out tests and simulations ...
11 votes
2 answers
2k views

For how long could the Mars helicopter Ingenuity keep up with the Perseverance rover if it wanted to?

Wikipedia's Mars Helicopter Ingenuity says: It could potentially cover a distance of up to 300 metres (980 ft) per flight. Perseverance is somewhat similar to Curiosity which drove about 22970 ...
2 votes
1 answer
166 views

What if Perseverance had experienced a fault after dropping Ingenuity?

When Ingenuity was released on the Martian surface in April 2021, Perseverance had to drive away to let the helicopter recharge its batteries with its solar panel. Was there a concern that the rover ...
7 votes
1 answer
258 views

Is the Beagle fixable?

We have since learned that Beagle 2 failed to operate successfully, potentially because its solar panels didn't open properly. Now, a collaboration between De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) and ...
3 votes
1 answer
172 views

How is parachute cover during Mars EDL prevented from crashing onto parachute or lander upon parachute opening?

MARS2020/Perseverance footage of parachute opening shows that parachute cover ejected by the lander (together with other "things") followed same trajectory of parachute box, until parachute ...
1 vote
1 answer
62 views

At what Mars-time did Perseverance land?

The Perseverance rover landed February 18, 2021 at 20:55 UTC, Earth-time. What time was it on Mars when Perseverance landed?
9 votes
1 answer
256 views

How heavy were Perseverance's balance masses?

Perseverance ejected two 70 kg "cruise balance masses" just before it became an airplane, to move its center of mass off axis and increase its angle of attack from 0° to about 16° to make it ...
5 votes
1 answer
220 views

Could Tianwen-1, Hope, or Mars 2020 image one another en route to Mars?

Which of the optical sensors in operation on the three spacecraft currently en route to Mars (China's Tianwen-1, UAE's Emirates Mars Mission (Hope), USA's Mars 2020 (Perseverance)) could image one of ...
8 votes
3 answers
463 views

Might Ingenuity tip over?

While Ingenuity patiently waits for its preflight checks to pass, how likely is it that a wind gust could tip it over? How strong and how rare a gust? Those rotors have plenty of area. (Surely NASA ...
0 votes
1 answer
219 views

How long did the plasma blackouts of Perseverance's signals to MRO and direct-to-Earth last during its seven minutes of terror?

Congratulations to NASA JPL and the Perseverance Team and everyone else who participated and contributed in some way! Watching the live feed of the EDL seven minutes of terror I heard there was a ...
7 votes
0 answers
275 views

Is Perseverance's heat shield's thickness radially symmetric?

I came across this video1 about the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission, especially the atmospheric entry phase. It says between about 03:50 and ...
6 votes
1 answer
182 views

Why is Perseverance heading back to where it came?

I was looking at the map of where Perseverance is and noticed that it is backtracking, following the path it already took, with only minor deviations. On Sol 353 for instance, it looks like it spent ...
1 vote
1 answer
116 views

Why was Perseverance covering little ground in its early days?

Perseverance has been on Mars for roughly a year. Based on the traverse path of Perseverance, it traveled rather slowly at first, and didn't cover much ground on its first 100 days on the red planet. ...
3 votes
3 answers
730 views

Perseverance current position

Is there any website which shows Perseverance live / current position relative to earth or sun ? (Because i couldnt find any so far)
17 votes
2 answers
2k views

Why is Perseverance's RTG lifetime only 14 years?

The MMRTG uses Pu-238, which has a half-life of 87.7 years. So after 14[1] years it should be able to output a little over 80% of the power, which naively to me seems like it should be enough. What is ...
8 votes
2 answers
228 views

Can Perseverance know which direction sound is coming from?

From the NASA website about Perseverance, the rover has two microphones on board. Can it use both microphones at the same time to pinpoint the direction a sound is coming from? Has this already been ...
5 votes
1 answer
178 views

Was ULA's mobile clean room on the ground floor or up near the top of the rocket? What were the logistics for getting Perseverance up there?

Spaceflight Now's ULA’s Atlas 5 is NASA’s go-to rocket for nuclear-powered space probes quotes Tory Bruno, president and CEO of United Launch Alliance: Bruno said the mobile clean room set up inside ...
3 votes
0 answers
72 views

Is there a "sample tube manual eject" switch that can be externally accessed on Perseverance?

In the (unlikely) event that Perseverance stops operating before 2026, can the sample fetch rover forcibly detach the already full sample tubes by accessing a manual switch on the rover? Would it make ...
6 votes
3 answers
539 views

China, UAE and US all sending missions to Mars in 2020 (Summer of L̶o̶v̶e Mars); how far apart are their frequencies?

Gizmodo's Second failure of ExoMars parachute test throws schedule in jeopardy says: ExoMars 2020 is due to launch during a narrow window open between July 25th to August 13th 2020, during which ...
4 votes
0 answers
184 views

How will Perseverance's selfie skills compare to Curiosity's? Will it have any additional selfie-related capabilities?

The design of the Mars 2020 rover Perseverance benefits from years of operational experience with Curiosity. While 2020's instrument suite differs in several ways it looks remarkably similar to ...
2 votes
0 answers
103 views

What would have to be done to Perseverance's twin rover Optimism to make it capable of a limited Mars roving mission?

A comment under If the James Web Space Telescope goes up in smoke, is there a backup? mentions that the Perseverance rover has a twin and supports that with a link. I looked, expecting to see some ...