The U.S. space agency “NASA” announced on Friday that the probe “Perseverance” had succeeded in traveling a few meters on Mars for the first time since it landed on the surface two weeks ago.

The six-wheeled mobile robot advanced four meters on Thursday afternoon, then turned itself to the left and then retracted about two and a half meters to check if its operating systems were working properly.

“Perseverance” was able to take pictures of its own wheels on the surface of Mars, published by NASA. The rover crossed six and a half meters in 33 minutes.

Search for clues to ancient life

“I don’t think I’ve ever been as happy as I used to be when I saw the wheel tracks,” said the engineer in charge of robot mobility at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which designed the vehicle. The engineer noted at a press conference that the first phase of the investigation had progressed very well, completing its mission “a very important step”.

The spacecraft can travel up to 200 meters on each Mars (slightly longer than Earth). It travels at five times the speed of any other Curiosity rover still operating on Mars.

Mobile Android “Preference” has landed The surface of Mars on February 18th The last thing on the Gizero crater that scientists believe to have been a deep lake about 3.5 billion years ago.

Thirty rock samples from the planet will be explored in two years, and another vehicle will return to Earth to find evidence of ancient life on the Red Planet.

Scientists are now observing two journeys of a mobile robot to the delta formed by an ancient river flowing into the lake, as researchers place great importance on exploring it as it is likely to contain large amounts of debris.

The first laser shot from “Supercam”

Before that, the helicopter will launch a small “ingenuity” under the vehicle, which will become the first motor vehicle to fly in the atmosphere of another planet. NASA teams are looking for the best place to conduct this historic experiment “before the end of spring,” Deputy Chief of Mission Robert Hogg promised Friday.

“PrioritySo far, its cameras have captured more than 7,000 images on Earth. On February 24, NASA released a remarkable panoramic image that collected several shots taken at the landing site of the mobile robot, showing the top of the Jessero crater.

One of the photos of the vehicle shows a light brown rock. In its analysis, a scientific instrument called “Supercom” was used for the first time. NASA expects to present the results next week.

The U.S. space agency also named the landing site “Perseverance” after Octavia e-Butler, a science fiction writer born in Pasadena, California, where JPL is located.