After successfully completing various scientific missions, perseverance celebrated its first Martian birthday on January 6.

CTOnews.com, January 9 (Xinhua)-- perseverance, which is on a scientific expedition to Mars, has set a new milestone: the first year of Mars after landing on Mars (Martian year). " Jezero Crater Crater, which landed on Mars in February 2021, has been on Mars for more than two years in Earth time, but Mars orbits the sun farther, so it is 687 days a year on Mars. " Perseverance celebrated its first Martian birthday on January 6.

While celebrating the first Martian birthday, perseverance also marks the end of the main scientific mission of the Mars exploration equipment. The scientific mission time set by NASA for perseverance is one Martian year, but at present, perseverance's data are working normally and are capable of more scientific missions. NASA has begun an extended mission of perseverance, which will continue to explore craters for evidence of ancient life and collect samples of Martian rocks and weathering layers.

"the expansion mission will begin on January 7," Art Thompson, the Perseverance project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement last year. "We will still deploy the sample library, so there is no change from this point of view."

But Thompson says perseverance will explore Three Forks next. It is an ancient river delta site, which is an exciting exploration target because it can provide clues as to whether microbial life ever existed on Mars.

To reach Three Forks, perseverance needs to climb a steep embankment, and it should reach the top of the delta, ready to start exploring sometime next month. Then it will spend eight months exploring the area.