Weather Forecast: Perseverance

[deluxestogie]

Weather forecast for tomorrow:

...expected to be sunny with a high of about 7 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 14 degrees Celsius) in Jezero Crater. Perseverance Rover starts its 3rd year of research on Mars tomorrow.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Perseverance has captured 405,403 total images. I have scanned through them daily from the beginning of the mission, saving particularly curious images. I've saved 401 as of today—so about 1 in 1000. It's a 10 or 15 minute project for me each evening.

Perseverance was scheduled for a 2 year mission. If the ubiquitous red dust doesn't break something first, it should just keep on going for 14 years on its nuclear power supply. It's companion, Ingenuity, the first helicopter on another planet, has also far outlasted is original mission, which is especially surprising, since it uses only solar power. Ingenuity's flights are so short (typically about 30 seconds), because the thin atmosphere does not dissipate heat rapidly enough. It's 2400-2900 rpm motor's temperature increases by 1°C per second of flight.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Planet of the Apes!

This was photographed by Perseverance rover on Mars four days ago.

Bob