NASAs Perserverance Rover launched in July on a month-long trip to Mars. It's a bit like sending your kids to college, only you never see them again. But NASA scientists on Earth can still enjoy the company of Optimism, Perseverance's twin.
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) announced on Friday that the full-scale engineering model of the rover passed its first test drive on September 1st. The test took place in a warehouse, but positions optimism for a greater challenge: tackling the Mars Yard problem, a simulated Martian landscape at JPL's California facility.
"Optimism" is actually an epic acronym that stands for "Operational Perseverance Twin for Integration of Mechanisms and Instruments Sent to Mars". The rover is almost identical to Perseverance, right down to size, propulsion system, and computer brain.
NASA released a video showing the earthbound version of the rover moving into its new home in a garage near Mars Yard.
Optimism has an important job to do. "To avoid as many unexpected problems as possible after the rover landed on February 18, 2021, the team needed this VSTB rover (Earth-Bound Vehicle System Test Bench) to measure hardware and software performance before sending commands to Perseverance will be transmitted on Mars, "said NASA.
The new Rover model will share space in the Mars Yard with Maggie (Mars automated giant gizmo for integrated engineering), the engineering model that stands for NASA's Curiosity Rover.
NASA Perseverance Rover ready to explore the wilderness of Mars
"The Curiosity mission has learned lessons from Maggie that were no other way to learn. Now that we are optimistic, the Perseverance mission is well armed to learn what it takes to be successful on Mars "said Matt Stumbo of NASA.
Perseverance is on a mission to seek out signs of old life on the red planet. It also wears one Experimental helicopter on board. The new rover is the latest and greatest in planet exploration technology. His Earth twin will help NASA overcome all the challenges it faces on its new home planet.
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