NASA's Perseverance rover sets record for longest Mars drive on autopilot

[Judi Lynn]

By Sharmila Kuthunur published about 13 hours ago

The rover's autopilot even guided it through boulders not seen by orbiting spacecraft.



Part of the path NASA's Perseverance Mars rover took to cross the boulder field dubbed "Snowdrift Peak." (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

NASA's Perseverance rover, along with its automatic navigation system, just set a record on Mars by maneuvering right through a particularly hazardous patch of Martian land. In turn, this impressive trip saved scientists weeks of precious time during which they can now do more science.

Although the mission team usually charts out the Mars rover's course manually, the automatic navigation system named AutoNav proved remarkable in this case as it safely guided the Perseverance rover around rocks hidden from orbiter images typically used for planning, scientists say.

"It was much denser than anything Perseverance has encountered before — just absolutely littered with these big rocks," Del Sesto, the deputy rover planner lead for Perseverance at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, said in a statement published Thursday (Sept. 21). "We didn't want to go around it because it would have taken us weeks. More time driving means less time for science, so we just dove right in."

In late June, Perseverance entered the boulder field named "Snowdrift Peak" from the east. It first paused to inspect two rocks, then, guided by AutoNav, trudged right through the field. By the time the rover exited Snowdrift Peak in late July, it had logged 759 meters (0.8 kilometers), according to the statement.

More:
https://www.space.com/perserverance-mars-rover-boulder-field-maneuvers

[sorrybushisfromtexas]

1. Amazing

Our expertise with unmanned space craft and river is simply getting better and better with each journey. We just got back a significant amount of an asteroid was brought back last week. Our space telescopes are telling us things we only surmised twenty years ago. I admire the women and men who are still finding information of the beginnings of the universe. NASA rocks!