Latest news with #KenFarley
NDTV
15-07-2025
- Science
- NDTV
NASA's Perseverance Rover Breaks Record For Longest Road Trip On Mars
NASA's Perseverance rover has made history by completing the longest single drive on Mars, covering over 411 meters (more than a quarter mile) of rocky terrain on June 19. Compared to other Mars rovers like Curiosity and Opportunity, Perseverance has proven to be a speedster, showcasing its impressive mobility on the Martian surface. According to Science Alert, Perseverance's advanced self-driving software enables it to process and analyse images on the move, allowing for longer daily drives. Unlike Curiosity and Opportunity, which need to stop to take and process images before proceeding, Perseverance's capability opens up new possibilities for scientific exploration on Mars. Since landing on Mars in 2021, Perseverance has made significant progress, evolving from a cautious 6.5-meter test drive to tackling challenging terrain, including a notable climb up a crater. The rover has also achieved a record-breaking 700-meter autonomous drive without human intervention. Its recent long road trip is part of its mission to explore and collect Martian rock samples. For the past month and a half, Perseverance has been exploring the Krokodillen plateau on the Jezero crater rim's outer slopes, searching for clay-bearing rocks. If samples here are found to contain minerals known as 'phyllosilicates', it could mean that abundant water may have existed here in the distant past. Additionally, phyllosilicates are known to preserve ancient organic materials, making these samples potentially valuable for understanding Mars' past. "If we find a potential biosignature here, it would most likely be from an entirely different and much earlier epoch of Mars evolution than the one we found last year in the crater with 'Cheyava Falls'," said Ken Farley, deputy project scientist for Perseverance. "The Krokodillen rocks formed before Jezero Crater was created, during Mars' earliest geologic period, the Noachian, and are among the oldest rocks on Mars," he added. On the Krokodillen plateau, Perseverance has found clay-bearing rocks that are fragile and prone to breaking. To gather meaningful evidence, the rover needs to collect a high-quality sample. With seven sample tubes remaining, the NASA team decided to revisit a previously sampled spot with a strong clay signature, hoping to find the best evidence of Mars' past. Notably, the Opportunity rover, active on Mars since 2004, holds the record for the most distance driven on another planet, with over 40 km. However, Perseverance's advanced mobility may soon put it in the lead, as it continues to traverse the Martian terrain with greater ease and finesse than its predecessors.
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA Rover Breaks Record For Longest Road Trip on Another Planet
Perseverance is hitting the 'open road' on Mars like no other rover. On June 19, the six-wheeled explorer officially completed the longest day trip of any robot vehicle on another planet. In a single drive, the rover rolled over 411 meters of Mars' rocky surface (more than a quarter mile). Related: That may not sound like much, but compared to Curiosity and Opportunity, which inch along at a relative snail's pace, Percy is a speed demon. That's because Perseverance has self-driving software, which can process and analyze images even while its wheels are turning. By contrast, Curiosity and Opportunity need to stop, take images, and then process that information before deciding on a good path forward. The ability to drive longer distances in a day opens up new possibilities for scientific studies on Mars. Since Percy landed on the red planet in 2021, and completed its first hesitant test drive – a flawless 6.5-meter up-and-back – the rover has come far. Its travels include an epic climb up a crater and the longest drive of any vehicle without human review on another planet – 700 meters of pure, 'wind-in-the-hair' freedom. The reason for its recent long road trip has to do with the rocks that Percy is on a mission to collect. For the past month and a half, the rover has searched for clay-bearing rocks on the Krokodillen plateau, which lies on the outer slopes of the Jezero crater rim. If samples here are found to contain minerals known as 'phyllosilicates', it could mean abundant water may have existed here in the distant past. Phyllosilicates can also preserve remnants of organic materials from billions of years ago. "If we find a potential biosignature here, it would most likely be from an entirely different and much earlier epoch of Mars evolution than the one we found last year in the crater with 'Cheyava Falls'," said Ken Farley, deputy project scientist for Perseverance, in May. "The Krokodillen rocks formed before Jezero Crater was created, during Mars' earliest geologic period, the Noachian, and are among the oldest rocks on Mars." On some parts of the plateau, however, Perseverance has found clay-bearing rocks that break easily when handled. Picking out a solid sample is crucial. Only the best evidence will do. "There are seven empty sample tubes remaining and a lot of open road in front of us," said Perseverance acting project scientist Katie Stack Morgan in May. In late June, the NASA team that drives Percy decided to turn the rover around, driving it back to a spot previously sampled, which contains the strongest clay signature of the bunch. Hence the long drive. Of all the rovers to roam other planets, the Opportunity rover, which has been on Mars since 2004, has racked up the most overall kilometers of driving, more than 40 km. But Opportunity can't move with the same finesse as Perseverance, and neither can Curiosity. At this rate, it won't be long until Perseverance takes the lead. Its current total distance sits at nearly 36 km. NASA Reveals The Closest Images Ever Taken of The Sun Your Next Flight Might Signal Our Existence to Alien Civilizations Planet Discovery Reveals Out-of-Sync Double Star System
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Was ancient Mars habitable? NASA's Perseverance rover is grinding into a 'weird, uncooperative' rock to find out
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. NASA's Perseverance rover is digging deeper into Mars' geologic past as it begins grinding into Red Planet rock surfaces to expose material that could hold clues to the planet's ancient environment and habitability. Earlier this month, the Perseverance rover used its abrasion tool to scrape away the top layer of a rocky Martian outcrop nicknamed "Kenmore," revealing a fresh surface for close-up analysis of the rock's composition and history. The procedure, which involves a combination of mechanical grinding and gas-blast cleaning, allows scientists to study rock interiors that haven't been altered by wind, radiation or dust over billions of years. "Kenmore was a weird, uncooperative rock," Ken Farley, Perseverance's deputy project scientist, said in a statement. "Visually, it looked fine — the sort of rock we could get a good abrasion on and perhaps, if the science was right, perform a sample collection. But during abrasion, it vibrated all over the place and small chunks broke off. Fortunately, we managed to get just far enough below the surface to move forward with an analysis." The recent abrasion marks a shift in the rover's focus from primarily scouting and sampling to more detailed in-situ science. Compared to its predecessors, Perseverance uses an advanced abrading bit and gaseous Dust Removal Tool, or gDRT, which applies five puffs of nitrogen to clear samples in a way that poses less risk of contamination. For comparison, earlier rovers used a brush instead to sweep debris, or tailings, out of the way. After an abrasion is complete, Perseverance's science instruments are deployed to investigate the exposed rock. The rover's WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and Engineering) imager snaps close-up photos, while its SuperCam uses laser pulses to analyze the composition of vaporized material with one spectrometer and study visible and infrared light reflected from the freshly exposed surface with another. "The tailings showed us that this rock contains clay minerals, which contain water as hydroxide molecules bound with iron and magnesium — relatively typical of ancient Mars clay minerals." Cathy Quantin-Nataf, SuperCam team member, said in the statement. "The abrasion spectra gave us the chemical composition of the rock, showing enhancements in iron and magnesium." Perseverance also relies on its SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals) and PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry) instruments to help determine mineral content, chemical composition and potential signs of past water activity or even microbial life. In fact, not only did these tools find further evidence of clay, they also detected feldspar — a mineral common in Earth's crust as well as on the moon and other rocky planets. The team also found, for the first time, manganese hydroxide in the observed specimens. "The data we obtain now from rocks like Kenmore will help future missions so they don't have to think about weird, uncooperative rocks," Farley said. "Instead, they'll have a much better idea whether you can easily drive over it, sample it, separate the hydrogen and oxygen contained inside for fuel, or if it would be suitable to use as construction material for a habitat." The work is being carried out in Mars' Jezero Crater, a 28-mile-wide (45-kilometer-wide) basin that once hosted a river delta and lake. Scientists believe the region contains some of the best-preserved records of Mars' wet past, making it a prime location to search for biosignatures, or indicators of ancient life. Kenmore represents the 30th Martian rock that Perseverance has studied in such fine detail. RELATED STORIES — Perseverance rover: Everything you need to know — NASA's Perseverance rover hits the Mars rock gold mine: 'It has been all we had hoped for and more' — Perseverance Mars rover finds 'one-of-a-kind treasure' on Red Planet's Silver Mountain Perseverance is also continuing to collect rock core samples, which are being sealed in tubes and stored for a possible future return to Earth through the planned Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign — though the Trump administration's recently released FY 2026 NASA budget proposal suggests cutting the MSR program altogether.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Perseverance rover rolls onto 'Crocodile' plateau on Mars to hunt for super-old rocks
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. NASA's Perseverance rover has made to a new region on Mars, which may contain some of the Red Planet's oldest and most interesting rocks. Perseverance landed inside the 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero Crater in February 2021, on a mission to search for past signs of Mars life and collect dozens of samples for future return to Earth. The car-sized rover has covered a lot of ground in the past four-plus years, and it has now reached yet another new spot — a plateau of rocky outcrops that the mission team named Krokodillen, after a mountain ridge on Prins Karls Forland island in Norway. (Krokodillen means "crocodile" in Norwegian.) Krokodillen, which covers about 73 acres (30 hectares), is a boundary of sorts between the ancient rocks of Jezero's rim and the plains beyond. Earlier work suggest that it harbors clay minerals, which form in the presence of liquid water. If Perseverance finds more such minerals throughout Krokodillen, it would suggest that the area may have been habitable long ago — an intriguing thought, given the age of the rocks. "The Krokodillen rocks formed before Jezero Crater was created, during Mars' earliest geologic period, the Noachian, and are among the oldest rocks on Mars," Ken Farley, deputy project scientist for Perseverance from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, said in a statement on May 19. "If we find a potential biosignature here, it would most likely be from an entirely different and much earlier epoch of Mars evolution than the one we found last year in the crater with 'Cheyava Falls,'" Farley added. Cheyava Falls is an arrowhead-shaped rock that Perseverance studied in 2024. The rover found chemical signatures and structures that are consistent with the activity of ancient microbial life. But such features may also have been produced by geological processes, so they remain potential rather than definitive biosignatures. Related: Scientists find hint of hidden liquid water ocean deep below Mars' surface Indeed, confirming the presence of current or past life on Mars may be too tall a task for Perseverance, given its limited scientific payload. That's why the rover is collecting samples that can be returned to Earth for study in well-equipped labs around the globe. (The future of Mars sample return is currently in doubt, however; the Trump administration's 2026 budget request would cancel the current plan to bring Perseverance's collected material home.) RELATED STORIES —NASA Mars satellite uncovers markings 'like paint dripping down a wall' on Martian surface —NASA rover discovers out-of-place 'Skull' on Mars, and scientists are baffled —Lights on Mars! NASA rover photographs visible auroras on Red Planet for the first time And speaking of sampling: The Perseverance team is implementing a new strategy going forward, according to the Monday statement. The rover will now leave some of its newly filled tubes unsealed, so it can dump out collected samples in favor of potentially more exciting ones if need be. The team is taking this tack because Perseverance is getting low on unsealed tubes and still has a lot of intriguing ground to cover. The rover carries 43 tubes, 38 of which are for collecting samples. (The other five are "witness" tubes that are designed to help the mission team determine if any materials in the collected samples are contaminants from Earth.) Perseverance has filled all but seven of its sample tubes at this point, according to Perseverance acting project scientist Katie Stack Morgan of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "We have been exploring Mars for over four years, and every single filled sample tube we have on board has its own unique and compelling story to tell," she said in the same statement. "This strategy allows us maximum flexibility as we continue our collection of diverse and compelling rock samples." This article was originally published on
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Perseverance rover rolls into 'Crocodile' region on Mars to hunt for super-old rocks
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. NASA's Perseverance rover has made to a new region on Mars, which may contain some of the Red Planet's oldest and most interesting rocks. Perseverance landed inside the 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero Crater in February 2021, on a mission to search for past signs of Mars life and collect dozens of samples for future return to Earth. The car-sized rover has covered a lot of ground in the past four-plus years, and it has now reached yet another new spot — a plateau of rocky outcrops that the mission team named Krokodillen, after a mountain ridge on Prins Karls Forland island in Norway. (Krokodillen means "crocodile" in Norwegian.) Krokodillen, which covers about 73 acres (30 hectares), is a boundary of sorts between the ancient rocks of Jezero's rim and the plains beyond. Earlier work suggest that it harbors clay minerals, which form in the presence of liquid water. If Perseverance finds more such minerals throughout Krokodillen, it would suggest that the area may have been habitable long ago — an intriguing thought, given the age of the rocks. "The Krokodillen rocks formed before Jezero Crater was created, during Mars' earliest geologic period, the Noachian, and are among the oldest rocks on Mars," Ken Farley, deputy project scientist for Perseverance from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, said in a statement on Monday (May 19). "If we find a potential biosignature here, it would most likely be from an entirely different and much earlier epoch of Mars evolution than the one we found last year in the crater with 'Cheyava Falls,'" Farley added. Cheyava Falls is an arrowhead-shaped rock that Perseverance studied in 2024. The rover found chemical signatures and structures that are consistent with the activity of ancient microbial life. But such features may also have been produced by geological processes, so they remain potential rather than definitive biosignatures. Indeed, confirming the presence of current or past life on Mars may be too tall a task for Perseverance, given its limited scientific payload. That's why the rover is collecting samples that can be returned to Earth for study in well-equipped labs around the globe. (The future of Mars sample return is currently in doubt, however; the Trump administration's 2026 budget request would cancel the current plan to bring Perseverance's collected material home.) Related stories: — Perseverance rover: Everything you need to know — NASA's Perseverance Mars rover finds possible signs of ancient Red Planet life — Trump's 2026 budget plan would cancel NASA's Mars Sample Return mission. Experts say that's a 'major step back' And speaking of sampling: The Perseverance team is implementing a new strategy going forward, according to the Monday statement. The rover will now leave some of its newly filled tubes unsealed, so it can dump out collected samples in favor of potentially more exciting ones if need be. The team is taking this tack because Perseverance is getting low on unsealed tubes and still has a lot of intriguing ground to cover. The rover carries 43 tubes, 38 of which are for collecting samples. (The other five are "witness" tubes that are designed to help the mission team determine if any materials in the collected samples are contaminants from Earth.) Perseverance has filled all but seven of its sample tubes at this point, according to Perseverance acting project scientist Katie Stack Morgan of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "We have been exploring Mars for over four years, and every single filled sample tube we have on board has its own unique and compelling story to tell," she said in the same statement. "This strategy allows us maximum flexibility as we continue our collection of diverse and compelling rock samples."
