The Perseverance probe marks its 1,000th day on Mars

According to the US Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Perseverance probe has marked 1,000 days of operation on the 'Red Planet' .

Image of the Ingenuity Mars exploration helicopter (left) taken from the camera of the Perseverance probe (right), April 6, 2021. (Photo: AFP/TTXVN)

A day on Mars is 24 hours and 37 minutes, nearly 40 minutes longer than a day on Earth. On February 18, 2021, the Perseverance probe along with its companion robot -  the Ingenuity helicopter - landed on Mars at Jezero crater. Since then, the ship, about the size of a car, has been on a mission to search for traces of ancient life on Mars.

According to NASA, the Perseverance spacecraft recently completed an exploration of an ancient river delta that holds evidence of a lake flowing into Jezero crater billions of years ago. To date, the 6-wheeled Perseverance probe has collected a total of 23 samples, revealing the geological history of this area of ​​Mars.

Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley at the California Institute of Technology explains why researchers chose Jezero Crater as the landing site because orbital images showed the delta as clear evidence of a A large lake once filled the crater of the volcano. Lakes are potential habitats, while the rocky soil of the delta is an ideal environment that hides signs of ancient life, such as fossils.

The key goal of the Perseverance mission on Mars is to study life in space, including searching for signs of ancient microorganisms. According to NASA, this probe will learn about the geology and past climate of Mars, helping people decode the 'Red Planet'. This is the first mission to collect and store Martian soil and rock samples.

On the same day, NASA announced it would launch a new Earth observation system into orbit to study oceans and clouds. Specifically, the mission called PACE will be put into orbit from the Canaveral Space Station in Florida (USA) after February 6, 2024. The data obtained will help NASA understand how the ocean and atmosphere exchange CO ₂ , measure key atmospheric variables related to air quality and Earth's climate, and monitor the health of the oceans .