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A year of milestones for the Mars 2020 mission

By Brianna Wessling | February 18, 2022

mars 2020 timeline

Click on image to enlarge.

It’s been a year since the Perseverance rover first landed its wheels on Mars. This ended the rover’s almost seven-month journey from Earth. 

The rover was sent to Mars to look for signs of ancient life and collect rock samples to be returned to Earth. The mission will hopefully last at least one Mars year, or about 687 Earth days. 

It landed in the Jezero Crater on the planet with 43 empty sample containers. NASA hopes that at least 20 samples can be successfully collected. 

The rover cored its first rock in September 2021 and collected two samples from it. Perseverance has cored several rocks since then. 

Attached to the belly of the Perseverance rover was the Ingenuity Helicopter, which touched down on Mars in April 2021. Ingenuity was the first ever helicopter to be sent to another planet. It was sent as a technology demonstration to test the first powered flight on Mars. 

“Ingenuity’s sole purpose was to prove we can fly on Mars, period. And to do that we had 30 days. 30 days in which we had planned out five flights. And thankfully they all went extremely well,” Teddy Tzanetos, Ingenuity team lead said. “After that 30 day window, we were extended into our operations demonstration phase. Which we’re currently in and continue to operate in, now that we’ve flown 19 successful flights in the last nine months.”

That same month Ingenuity landed, after an unsuccessful flight attempt and overcoming a software issue, the helicopter made its first flight. The rover was in the air for a total of 39.1 seconds. 

In May 2021, Ingenuity completed its fifth flight and its first one-way flight. The helicopter reached a record altitude at the time of 33 feet. 

Currently, Ingenuity is in the operations demonstration phase of its mission. During this phase, the NASA team will explore how aerial scouting could benefit future Mars missions. The helicopter has traveled a total of 3.8 kilometers, according to Tzanetos. 

Perseverance’s first color photo of Mars was captured shortly after it landed on Feb. 18, 2021. | Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech The gray rock in the center shows two holes from core samples taken by the Perseverance rover. | Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech OK, this photo was taken by the Sky Crane, but it shows Perseverance being lowered onto the Martian surface. | Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Images like this one confirmed Jezero Crater is an ancient Martian lake, researchers say. This Mastcam-Z enhanced color photo mosaic shows a butte near Jezero crater informally dubbed “Kodiak” by the rover team. | Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Perseverance captured this image of “Santa Cruz,” a hill about 1.5 miles away from the rover. The entire scene is inside of Mars’ Jezero Crater; the crater’s rim can be seen on the horizon line beyond the hill. | Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Perseverance took a selfie with Ingenuity on April 6. Taking a selfie requires Perseverance to take multiple photos that are then stitched together. | Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Perseverance's SuperCam captured this extreme close-up of a martian rock. | Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech An image of sandy Mars terrain captured by Perseverance's Left Mastcam-Z Camera. | Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Perseverance captured this image of Ingenuity's first flight on April 19, 2021, in which it hovered in the air for more than 30 seconds. | Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

 

About The Author

Brianna Wessling

Brianna Wessling is an Associate Editor, Robotics, WTWH Media. She joined WTWH Media in November 2021, after graduating from the University of Kansas with degrees in Journalism and English. She covers a wide range of robotics topics, but specializes in women in robotics, autonomous vehicles, and space robotics.

She can be reached at bwessling@wtwhmedia.com

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