Could life on mars exist? Well, we are about to find out as a result of the Mars 2020 Perseverance
mission. After being launched on the 3rd of July 2020, the Perseverance Rover landed 203 days later
on 18th of February 2021. The landing side is Jezero crater which was selected from a list of
60 candidates. According to NASA, the Perseverance mission has four objectives. The first is to study
the rocks and landscapes of the landing site to learn a little bit more about its history. The
second is to look for signs of ancient life. The third is to find and collect samples of Mars rocks
and soil for return to earth in a future mission. The fourth is to test out technologies that'll one
day sustain human life on Mars. Before we talk about the rover, let's first take a look at the
spacecraft in general. So it consists of five components. The first is the crew stage which is
equipped with solar panels, radio antennas, fuel tanks and thrusters. It's responsible for powering
the entire device, maintaining contact with earth and adjusting the spacecraft's trajectory during
its seven months journey to Mars. The second component is the back shell. Its primary purpose
is to protect the rover during the turbulent descent to Mars. It also houses a parachute and
thrusters for slowing down the spacecraft during descent. The third component is the descent stage
or as NASA likes to call it the rover's jet pack. It is responsible for lowering the rover onto the
Martian surface. It is equipped with a thrusters and landing radar systems for final adjustments of
rover touchdown. The fourth component is the rover itself and the final component is the heat shield.
Its primary responsibility is to protect the rover from the extreme heat experience during the entry
into the martian atmosphere it can withstand a heat of 1300 degrees celsius. Now let's talk
about the rover the rover itself. It's equipped with seven scientific instruments, 19 cameras,
a core drill for digging out rock and soil samples and two microphones for recording the sounds
on Mars. The first scientific instrument is the Mastcam-Z which is a camera system that will help
scientists assess the Martian surface. The second is MEDA which are sensors that take temperature,
wind speed and direction, pressure, relative humidity and dust size and shape measurements.
The third is MOXIE which is a device that converts carbon dioxide into oxygen. The fourth is PIXL
which is an x-ray spectrometer that conducts a detailed analysis of the chemical elements
of the martian surface. The fifth is RIMFAX which is a ground penetrating radar that
provides centimeter scale resolution of the geologic structure of the subsurface.
The sixth is SHERLOC which is another spectrometer that provides fine scale imaging and uses a UV
laser to detect organic compounds. The final instrument is the Supercam. It uses a laser
camera and spectrometers to examine rocks and soil for organic compounds that allude to past life on
mars additionally the rover is also equipped with the Ingenuity Mars helicopter. It is a technology
demonstration of the first powered flight on Mars. It can fly up to 90 seconds to an altitude of
3 to 4.6 meters and it only weighs 1.8 kilograms. So other exciting technologies on the rover
also include Range Trigger Technology and the Terrain Relative Navigation. In previous
missions the parachutes have been deployed as early as possible but this leads to a large
landing ellipse. Larger landing ellipses can lead to rovers traversing a large distance just
to reach its region of interest and given that the top speed of the rover is 152 meters per hr,
it can mean a lot of lost mission time whereas the Range Trigger technology will be able to
deploy the parachute when it sees fit based on its distance from the landing site thereby it
reduces the size of your landing ellipse by more than 50%. Finally the terrain relative navigation
is responsible for deviating this spacecraft during descent from any rough terrains. So the
duration of the rover's primary mission is about one martian year which is about 687 earth days,
just short of two years. This is most of what you need to know about the Mars 2020 Perseverance
mission. If you enjoyed the video don't forget to like and subscribe and I'll see you next time.