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PERSEVERANCE - Helicopter on Mars - “Perseverance” is a rover on Mars that carriers a helicopter with it, called “Ingenuity”.
The tiny Ingenuity chopper recently did its 51st flight on Mars.
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- Perseverance traveled 188 meters this time
on April 22, 2023, and reached a maximum altitude of 12 meters over the Martian
surface. During that time, it snapped another image of its Perseverance
mothership, waiting patiently on the horizon.
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Ingenuity's trip achieved a hop from Airfield Mu to Airfield Nu. In
addition to the view of Perseverance, it also captured a quick shot of some
debris left over from the entry, descent, and landing sequence in early 2021.
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- Ingenuity
snapped a view of some debris left over from the entry, descent, and landing
sequence that brought her and Perseverance to Mars.
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- Currently,
the rover is parked at a rock outcrop nicknamed “Echo Creek.” That’s where the
Perseverance team is doing distance measurements. The team is also studying the
rocks in this region.
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- Orbital
images show them as brighter than surrounding areas. They also seem to be
fractured into polygon-shaped patterns. All of these rock studies are part of
the team’s study of the upper part of the Fan region in Jezero Crater.
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- Nearby
Echo Creek is a small hill called “Mount Julian”, which the rover will be
exploring in the very near future. Both crafts are on the edge of Belva Crater.
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- That’s an
interesting surface feature with a depth-to-diameter ratio that makes it
shallower than other craters. It looks as if the crater walls were broken down
or breached at some point. That raises interesting questions about its ancient
past. Was it once filled with water? Are the rims eroded? If so, what happened
to break them down?
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- The Mars
Perseverance rover and its little Ingenuity chopper are now exploring Jezero
Crater on Mars. This region is pretty intriguing because it looks like water
played a huge role in shaping the landforms there.
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- The crater
itself formed during an ancient impact event. At least 3.5 billion years ago,
river channels brought water into the crater and created a lake inside. That
carried clay minerals into the crater lake. The whole sequence of events raises
questions about how long the water lasted, and whether it sustained any kind of
life (probably microbial).
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- The
Perseverance rover has the instruments and ability to study Mars’s ancient
rocks. In fact, until recently, it carried a “pet rock” along in its wheel,
only to lose it after 427 days of roaming around. Perseverance drills into surface rocks and
provides information to scientists about their chemical makeup and other characteristics.
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- The
Ingenuity chopper started out as a tech demonstration of five flights. With 51
achieved, it just keeps going and going, providing unique looks at the
landscape and its mothership.
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April 30, 2023 PERSEVERANCE - Helicopter on Mars
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------ “Jim Detrick” -----------
--------------------- --- Sunday, April 30, 2023
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