NASA has published the first results of the examination of the first two rock samples collected in recent days by the Mars Rover Perseverance in the Jezero crater on planet Mars. After last month’s disappointment, with the failure of the first attempt to take a sample of a rock that proved too crumbly, there were two successes. A rock nicknamed Rochette proved suitable and Perseverance was successful in taking a sample nicknamed Montdenier on September 6 and a sample nicknamed Montagnac on September 8. The most interesting indication is that there was water in the area for a long time when the environment was potentially habitable.

Yesterday, the Ingenuity helicopter conducted its first flight on planet Mars. The duration was only 40 seconds and it reached an altitude of just over 3 meters but it was important to lift off the ground this drone built to test the technologies needed to fly a vehicle in the Martian atmosphere, which is very thin. The flight was autonomous, pre-scheduled, and initiated by a command launched from Earth. The images, along with telemetry data, were transmitted to the Mars Rover Perseverance mission control center.

A few hours ago, the Mars Rover Perseverance and the Ingenuity helicopter landed successfully on Mars, in Jezero Crater. Launched on July 30, 2020, these are the two vehicles of NASA’s Mars 2020 mission. With more than 1,000 kg of weight on Earth, Perseverance even surpasses the Mars Rover Curiosity, of which it’s an evolution. For at least a Martian year, it will examine the area of ​​a geologically very interesting crater, collecting samples that mighy be returned to Earth by a future mission.