Tidings from Mars

May.19, 2021

China has now successfully landed a rover on Mars, only the second nation to do so. Their rover -Zhurong, touched down on the northern plain of Utopia Planitia on May 14th and was deployed on the surface 8 days later. During its expected 3 month mission, the rover will study the surface soil and atmosphere, as well look for any signs of life. Zhurong has already transmitted back images of its surroundings, though it will be interesting to see how much image data will be publically available. Zhurong joins a growing list of Mars rovers, functioning or otherwise, on Mars, indeed any Martian scrap merchants would be dreaming of an exotic holiday to Earth given the quantity of rare metal and expensive hardware knocking about! One day that will come to pass.

Location of functioning and scrap metal on Mars (click for larger image)

The Chinese rover Zhurong (click for larger image)

Meanwhile, NASA’s two rovers are also busy. Perseverance is just starting out doing science, whilst Curiosity has long been doing so. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory recently shared an update on what the rovers have been up to, including the plans for the next phase of the Perseverance mission. The helicopter Ingenuity has completed its sixth flight, although Percy must wondered whether the little drone had been on some Martian stuff. Approximately 54 seconds into its sixth flight on May 22, at an altitude of 33 feet (10 metres), it suffered a glitch in the pipeline of images being delivered by the navigation camera; this resulted in all later navigation images being delivered with inaccurate timestamps. Because of this Ingenuity adjusted its velocity, tilting back and forth more than 20 degree in an oscillating pattern which lasted throughout the rest of the flight. This was accompanied by large control inputs, and spikes in power consumption. The helicopter landed safely due to certain in built design features. Although a scare, engineers now know that these inbuilt safeguards apparently work very well, Ingenuity is seemingly set to go off exploring on its own, allowing Perseverance to perform scientific experiments of the Martian rock formations. It recently used its robotic arm to get up close and personal with the Martian surface, and now it has moved onto collecting samples of Martian rocks and regolith utilising a special system of tubes, the first time it will be used. These samples will later be picked up and returned to Earth in a future mission called Mars Sample Return. So far Perseverance has driven 345 meters since landing, but has a very long way to go.

A view from Ingenuity captured during its 6th 'wild' flight. (click for larger image)

Perseverance imaged Ingenuity after its 6th flight from a considerable distance.
(click for larger image)

Let’s not forget about NASA’s other rover Curiosity, which is still on the move, doing science, 3220 sols after landing, that's 8 years 300 days and counting! Even Curiosity has a way to go to break NASA's mini rover Opportunity's record of almost 15 years on the Martian surface. Curiousity is currently at the base of Mount Mercou, a rocky outcrop on the slopes of Mt Sharp in Gale crater. The image below is part of a spectacular 360 degree colour panorama of the view.

Curiousity on the slopes of Mt Sharp (click for larger image)

In the distance you can see the floor of Gale crater where curiosity landed. It has climbed over 1300 feet to get to where the image was taken. the other side you can see the terrain further ahead. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted Curiosity climbing a rocky outcrop known as Mont Mercou, near the centre of the Gale Crater on the slopes of the 3-mile-high Mount Sharp, the crater’s central peak. The photo was taken at an altitude of 167.5 miles.