A computer pilot helps NASA’s six-wheeled geologist as it searches for rock samples that could be brought to Earth for deeper investigation. In about a third of the time it would have taken other NASA Mars rovers, Perseverance recently navigated its way through a field of boulders more than 1,700
at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory went a little overboard. He changed his mind after Snowdrift Peak.
“It was much denser than anything Perseverance has encountered before – just absolutely littered with these big rocks,” said Del Sesto, deputy rover planner lead for Perseverance atin Southern California. “We didn’t want to go around it because it would have taken us weeks. More time driving means less time for science, so we just dove right in.”
“If you take out the sols dedicated to mission science, the traverse through Snowdrift Peak only took six autonomous drive sols, which is probably 12 sols faster than Curiosity would have taken,” said Del Sesto. “Of course, everybody on the team knows we only got to this level of performance by standing on the shoulders of giants. Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity were the trailblazers.
“Our rover is the perfect example of the old adage ‘two brains are better than one,’” said Vandi Verma, lead author of the paper and the mission’s chief engineer for robotic operations at JPL. “Perseverance is the first rover that hasThis autonomous capability has allowed Perseverance to set new records for Mars off-roading, including a single-day drive distance of 1140.7 feet and longest drive without human review: 2296.2 feet .
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