Perseverance Rover Takes 'Road Trip' on Mars. Here's What Red Planet Looks Like

NASA released an animated video showing its Perseverance Rover on Mars. The rover is seen moving on the surface of the red planet as the area in its vicinity gets lit in white colour while lines showing the position of wheels form. On Twitter, the video was shared by the official handle of NASA's Perseverance Rover on Mars. It read, "With no road maps on Mars, I'm building my own as I go. There are lots of places I want to explore, and mapping, while I drive, will help me see and do more. Let the road trip begin."

And in case you want more than what's given in that short video, the team at NASA also has a website that gives people a first-hand look at the surface of Mars through its new Mars Trek website. NASA shared the link on Twitter, asking people to check it out. The Mars Trek website shows the red surface of the planet and when you hover the cursor over it, you get the longitude as well as latitude readings on the bottom left of the screen.

One user, reacting to the original tweet - which has been viewed over 495,000 times - of the Perseverance Rover driving around on Mars, shared a short clip of the rover but added an alien to it.

Another shared a GIF file from what appears to be a video game. "90s kids will know," the tweet read.

Then, there was one who said it's like the Age of Empires when you haven't explored the map yet.

Launched on July 30, 2020, NASA's Perseverance Rover Mars is looking for signs of ancient life on the red planet. It will collect the samples of rock and regolith -- broken rock and soil -- for a possible return to Earth. According to information on NASA's website, Perseverance's body and other major hardware such as the cruise stage, descent stage, and aeroshell/heat shield build upon the success of NASA's Curiosity rover and include many heritage components. The car-sized Perseverance rover is about 10 feet long (not including the arm), 9 feet wide, and 7 feet tall (about 3 meters long, 2.7 meters wide, and 2.2 meters tall and weighs 2,260 pounds (1,025 kilograms).

So what do you think about the idea of marking roads on the surface of Mars? Also, what do you think about the Mars Trek? Let us know in the comments.