Martian anniversary: the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity unmanned helicopter spent 1,000 days on the Red Planet

NASA reached a major milestone this week. The two newest vehicles have spent 1,000 Martian days on Mars.

Here's What We Know

The Perseverance rover and the Ingenuity unmanned aerial vehicle landed on the surface of the Red Planet on 18 February 2021. On 13 December 2023, the 1000th Martian day (sol) on Mars arrived for them. The duration of one sol is 24 hours and 37 minutes.

Perseverance and Ingenuity landed at Jezero Crater. Since then, the rover has been searching for signs of life that may have existed on Mars billions of years ago. The rover is also collecting soil samples that will be brought back to Earth for study in about 10 years.

Ingenuity was originally designed to test the performance of rotorcraft in the thin atmosphere of Mars. Its mission was supposed to consist of five flights. However, the drone has survived more than one communication breakdown and has already made several dozen flights.

Source: NASA