Within four months, the boulders had cut more than 5.3 miles (8.5 kilometers) through the rugged terrain. He joined the mission during the expedition to explore Jezero Crater, the site of an ancient lake and river delta, where NASA scientists surveyed the rocks of the formation the team refers to as “Maaz.”
It escorted the surviving rock north to the Octavia E. Butler landing site before turning west into the delta remnant scientists call “Kodiak,” and then westward the Jezero Delta.
Rolling on the plow wheel, the pet’s persistence stone does no harm to the operation, and it remains to be seen how long the new robot explorer companion will last.
If the pet rock falls and is called a rover, it will be far from home, surrounded by strange and unfamiliar stones.
The Passion and Curiosity of Pet Rocks
Perseverance isn’t the first Mars spacecraft to adopt a pet rock.
The Spirit cruiser, which was active from 2004 to 2010, had stabilized a potato-sized rock on its right rear wheel early in its flight. The rock stopped the wheel, so NASA scientists had to move it.
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