The American space agency's (Nasa) Perseverance rover has wiggled its wheels and undertaken its first drive across the surface of Mars.
Tracks in the dust: The rover should cover some 15km in its first Martian year. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Pictures downloaded to Earth on Friday indicate the excursion was a short roll and turn.
It's two weeks now since the one-tonne robot landed on the Red Planet.
Engineers have spent the time commissioning the vehicle and its many systems, including its instruments and robotic arm.
Perseverance's mission is to explore a near-equatorial crater called Jezero, to search for evidence of past life.
This will involve roving some 15km over the coming Martian year (roughly two Earth years).
A low-positioned camera looks out for potential driving hazards. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Scientists want to reach a number of enticing rock formations in the crater that might retain a record of ancient biological activity.
Among these is what looks in satellite imagery to be a delta - a structure built up from the silt and sand dumped by a river as it enters a wider body of water. In Jezero's case, this wider body was very likely a crater-wide lake that existed billions of years ago.
But before Perseverance can get down to this work, it has an experiment to run. The robot is going to fly a small helicopter brought from Earth.
Perseverance has gone to Mars with tougher wheels than its predecessors. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The rover will spend the next few weeks driving from its present location to a suitable stretch of terrain where the Ingenuity chopper can be put safely on the ground. At present, the aircraft is slung beneath Perseverance's belly.
- BBC
