Five striking peaks. Two summer houses. No inhabitants. Tindhólmur, a private islet west of Vágar. A remote Faroese place that’s making history at present – totally under the radar. Surely you know that NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on Mars a few days ago. Its main job: to seek after signs of ancient life and to collect samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and soil) for a possible return to Earth. NASA chose Jezero Crater as the Mars landing site for the rover. The mission: an extremely difficult task. No wonder that the Mars Perseverance team is made up of scientists and engineers from multiple disciplines, with international participation from countries and organizations around the world. The Mars rover carries tons of intriguing science instruments. And Tindhólmur has served as a testing ground for some of them. When I visited the private islet on one occasion, Mars mission scientists had climbed up to the five peaks, through, and down again on the other side, collecting rock samples in Tindhólmur’s steep face, subsequently calibrating instruments. Technology that’s in space now. On Mars. Helping to explore the Red Planet.
NASA: Perseverance Mission My Faroe Islands: Tindhólmur Tag