The rock, nicknamed Perseverance’s “pet,” accompanied the NASA rover for nearly half of its time on the Red Planet — and they eventually parted ways.

On February 4, 2022 – 341 sol into the Perseverance Mars mission – a rock lodged in the rover’s front left wheel, but fortunately did not pose a threat to its science mission. Periodically, the stone got into the photo – and remained in place, despite several “energetic” maneuvers of the rover on the surface of the planet.

On April 18, 2023 (768 Sol), NASA shared an image of Perseverance’s front wheel, showing that the rock had indeed moved from its usual location. In total, it “worked” with the rover for about 439 days (427 sols) — nearly 55% of the time Perseverance has spent on Mars since landing there on February 18, 2021.

During this time, the couple covered about 10 kilometers together.

“Farewell, “stone friend”. We will miss you,” Perseverance mission scientist Gwenel Caravaca wrote on Twitter.

Several other, slightly smaller rocks have already entered Perseverance’s wheels, but they “left” the rover for several days or weeks and did not pose a threat to its operation. However, stones falling into other mechanisms have previously caused problems. In December 2021, small rock debris was found in the rover’s internal system, causing it to shut down for nearly a week – before scientists found a way to remove the obstruction.

In December 2004, operators of NASA’s Spirit rover, which traveled by the Red Planet between January 2004 and March 2010, had to make a sharp turn to dislodge a potato-sized rock from its right rear wheel.

• Perseverance entered Mars in February 2021, landing in the crater Lake, about 49 kilometers in diameter, with the goal of searching for signs of ancient microbial life on the planet and collecting samples of the Martian environment. Scientists believe that billions of years ago there was a river in the crater that flowed into a large lake, providing the necessary environment for the life of ancient microbes.
• Currently, the rover is carrying 17 samples of the Red Planet’s rock, which can be delivered to Earth for further study. Their duplicates of Perseverance in case of unforeseen situations are additionally left in a special storage located in the Three Forks region. In February 2023, the rover dropped the last of 10 tubes.

Source: NASA, Live Science