Nasa's Perseverance rover goes for first drive on Mars

Space agency calls event a 'huge milestone' in its search for signs of Martian life

Wheel marks are left in the soil of Jezero Crater on Mars as Nasa's Perseverance rover drives on the Martian surface for the first time. Reuters

A tall outcropping of rock, with layered deposits of sediments in the distance, marking a remnant of an ancient, long-vanished river delta in Jezero Crater. Reuters

Tyre marks left by the rover as it moved for the first time since landing on Mars on February 18. EPA

Perseverance's main mission on Mars is astrobiology and the search for signs of ancient microbial life. EPA

Perseverance is capable of driving 200 metres per day but Nasa engineers have additional equipment checks to run on the rover's many instruments before attempting such a distance. EPA

The six-wheeled, car-sized astrobiology probe travelled 6.5 metres during a half-hour test spin within Jezero Crater. EPA

Mars rover Perseverance took its first short journey on the Red Planet, Nasa mission managers said.

On Thursday, the six-wheeled, car-sized astrobiology probe travelled 6.5 metres during a half-hour test spin within Jezero Crater, the site of the bed of a long-vanished lake and river delta.

Taking directions from Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles, the rover rolled four metres forward, turned about 150° to its left, and then drove backwards for 2.5 metres.

"It went incredibly well," and marked a huge milestone, JPL mobility test engineer Anais Zarifian said.

Nasa tweeted a photo taken by the rover showing tread marks left in the reddish, sandy Martian soil after its first drive.

Another vivid image showed a rugged, ruddy terrain littered with large dark boulders in the foreground and a tall outcropping of rocky, layered deposits in the distance, marking the edge of the river delta.

The rover had already beamed back a 360-degree image of its Martian environ from a stationary position.

Perseverance is capable of driving 200 metres per day, but JPL engineers still have additional equipment checks to run on the rover's many instruments before attempting such a distance.

These include post-landing tests of its sophisticated system to drill and collect rock samples for return to Earth in future Mars missions.

All signs were promising, and deputy mission manager Robert Hogg said the robot had operated flawlessly to date.

Perseverance's primary mission is to search for traces of fossilised microbial life.

It landed on the Red Planet two weeks ago on a site Nasa named Octavia E Butler Landing in honour of the award-winning American science fiction writer.

Nasa scientists are planning more short-distance tests of the probe on Friday.