While on an exploratory expedition on Mars, NASA's Perseverance rover has picked up an unexpected traveling companion, a little rock.
Perseverance's mission crew claims that the pet rock initially jumped atop the rover's front left tire four months ago and is refusing to come off.
Who knows how far the pick rock will go? Wherever it gets to, the social media users who have been captivated with the tale over recent days will be following it.
Everybody/thing needs a pet. :-)
"For the past 4 months, Perseverance has had an unexpected traveling companion. Back on sol 341 [...] a rock found its way into the rover’s front left wheel, and since hitching a ride"https://t.co/80n7bZi3G5— Kam-Yung Soh (mstdn.io/@sohkamyung) (@sohkamyung) June 3, 2022
Martian Rock Joins NASA Perseverance Rover in Mars
According to Indy100, NASA has officially declared that the rock has now broken a record for hitchhiking aboard the mission.
Perseverance likely picked up the massive stone in Jezero Crater, a 45kilometer-wide crater considered to have been filled with water.
It's been investigating the site since February 2021, picking rocks and samples to bring back to Earth to be explored. One of them, it looks like, has grown particularly attached to it.
The rock in issue had been riding on the ship for four months, which is the longest to have ever lasted aboard a Mars rover.
(Photo : NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Mars Perseverance Sol 343 - Front Left Hazard Avoidance Camera: A rock in the front left wheel of Perseverance on Sol 343, image was acquired on Feb. 6, 2022 (Sol 343).
Mars Perseverance Sol 343 - Front Left Hazard Avoidance Camera: A rock in the front left wheel of Perseverance on Sol 343, image was acquired on Feb. 6, 2022 (Sol 343).
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It is believed to have been picked up accidentally on the crater's bottom, and it's now more than 8.5 kilometers distant in the western Jezero delta.
One of Perseverance's objectives is to choose rocks to study and bring home. Eleni Ravanis, a student collaborator from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, thoughtfully wrote in a NASA mission blog post: "How do you choose a rock on Mars? Sometimes you don't- it chooses you."
Will Perseverance Kick It Out? Nope!
Isn't it possible for Percy to kick it out? Its four-month journey implies no, yet it doesn't appear to be obstructing the rover. IFL Science, citing NASA, said Perseverance is the "biggest, heaviest, cleanest, and most sophisticated six-wheeled robotic geologist ever launched into space."
Its wheels, which are 52 centimeters (20.4 inches) broad and include titanium spokes to endure regolith from another planet, are meant to withstand the wear and tear witnessed on Curiosity. It's nothing more than a rock. However, it is one of the most trafficked rocks around the globe.
It was first discovered while Percy was studying the "Máaz" formation on the crater floor, but it has already gone 8.5 kilometers (5.3 miles) with the rover to the western Jezero delta. If it slips out during Perseverance's climb of the crater rim in the future, it will be amid a group of rocky brethren that is highly distinct from itself.
Back on Earth, one of the rover's scientists joked: "We might confuse a future Mars geologist who finds it out of place!"
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