Perseverance completes 1,000 days on Mars, decodes mystery of ancient crater lake

NASA on Wednesday (Dec 13) announced that its Perseverance rover has completed the job that it was assigned to do when it landed on the planet Mars in February 2021. The basic task given to the robot was to conduct the survey of Jezero Crater, an ancient crater lake, and collect rocks which will help in their quest to find evidence for past life.

In a major conference held in San Francisco, the mission team said that the rover had accomplished this primary objective as it completed its 1000 Martian days.

"Marking its 1,000th Martian day on the Red Planet, NASA’s Perseverance rover recently completed its exploration of the ancient river delta that holds evidence of a lake that filled Jezero Crater billions of years ago. The six-wheeled scientist has to date collected a total of 23 samples, revealing the geologic history of this region of Mars in the process," stated NASA, in its media release.

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"It's a pretty incredible achievement and we've done an amazing amount of science," NASA's director of planetary science Dr Lori Glaze said. However, the completion of the task did not mean that the Perseverance would park up and "switch off the engine".

However, the scientists are left with many challenges ahead, which include how the rock samples of the vehicle will be brought back to Earth so that they can be studied in the lab.

“We picked Jezero Crater as a landing site because orbital imagery showed a delta – clear evidence that a large lake once filled the crater. A lake is a potentially habitable environment, and delta rocks are a great environment for entombing signs of ancient life as fossils in the geologic record,” Perseverance’s project scientist Ken Farley of Caltech said. “After thorough exploration, we’ve pieced together the crater’s geologic history, charting its lake and river phase from beginning to end," he added.

NASA's exploration of the Jezero Crater

NASA will be entering into a partnership with the European Space Agency on a project around Jezero Crater, however, a review board is currently examining the technical solutions, time frame and cost and it will report early next year.

This would necessarily involve sending a rocket to Mars which will be loaded with the finger-sized samples which will be blasted into space for the journey home.

"It will be one of the most audacious robotic missions ever conducted," said Arizona State University's Dr Mini Wadhwa, who is the principal scientist on NASA's Mars Sample Return programme.

(With inputs from agencies)