Multiple Views of Perseverance’s Wheels Wiggling

These sets of animated GIFs show seven views of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover wiggling its wheels on March 4, 2021, the day Perseverance completed its first drive on Mars.

The first three sets of GIFs come from the Navigation Cameras (Navcams). The first view shows the front left wheel; the second the front right wheel; the third the rear right wheel.

The next four sets come from the Hazard Avoidance Cameras (Hazcams). The fourth GIF shows the front left wheel again; the fifth the front right wheel again; the sixth the rear left wheel; and the seventh the rear right wheel again.

A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).

Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.

For more about Perseverance: mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/