On July 30th 2020, NASA launched the next generation of robotic explorers
to the red planet, Mars. For around seven months,
Perseverance travelled through the cold darkness of space, until on the 18th of February 2021,
it arrived and began its 7 minutes of terror. Striking the thin dusty martian atmosphere at
nearly 12,500 miles per hour, which 20,000 kilometres an hour, the spacecraft slammed
on its brakes, reduced its speed and thankfully settled safely on the sands of another world.
It entered, descended and landed on the red planets surface
becoming the fifth NASA rover to successfully touch down on Mars.
Recognised as the ‘fire star’ to ancient Chinese astronomers, Mars still holds many
burning unanswered questions, and once again NASA is attempting to answer them,
this time with the help of there largest rover yet, the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover.
The car-sized robot landed within a region on Mars named the Jezero Crater,
which is a 28 mile or 45-kilometre wide impact crater on the western edge of a
much larger impact basin called "Isidis". In Slavic languages, “Jezero” means lake
and it is a fitting name for the location, because this unexplored area of Mars was
possibly once a huge ancient body of water, with rivers and streams flowing into it,
similar to what can be found here on Earth. Like its predecessor and little brother Curiosity,
Perseverance is a semi-autonomous mobile science platform, which is designed to spend
its Martian days exploring the red planet. It will seek for signs of ancient microbial life,
attempting to uncover the planets mysterious past, but also test different
technologies for future human exploration. Nicknamed “Percy” by its Earthbound crew,
Perseverance is almost identical to Curiosity in design and size, but it is much heavier.
The extra weight is made up by an upgraded robotic arm, that features a coring drill,
a close-up surface inspection camera and two extra-scientific instruments.
The roaming laboratory also has a sample collection system, which will allow a
future mission to retrieve and bring back to Earth Martian samples for studying and
five extra cameras, offering 23 in total. A surprisingly exciting upgrade, however,
is that Perseverance is also carrying onboard microphones, which will eventually allow us
to finally get a true understanding of what Mars, really sounds like.
Perseverance will roam the baron landscape for many years to come,
but it won't be alone. Because, accompanying the rover is ingenuity, a small helicopter drone.
Ingenuity will attempt to demonstrate flight on Mars and provide aerial images. It will
fly for up to 90 seconds, at least 5 times during a 30 day period and hopefully assist
engineers back on Earth to better plan the rover's route.
As soon as Perseverance touched down it sent back 3 images of its landing site.
The low-resolution images are partially obscured by clear protective caps and were taken by the
rover's hazard avoidance cameras, which helps with driving across the rocky, sandy surface.
According to NASA, as the rover powers up, and the system checks are complete,
better quality, higher resolution images will soon be flooding in,
revealing once again the red planets alien surface.
Scientists hope that this mission will pave the way for future expeditions by
demonstrating exciting scientific technologies. The roaming laboratory will attempt to produce
oxygen from the Martian atmosphere, identify resources such as subsurface water, explore
ways of improving future landing techniques and provide a much more accurate picture of
the Red planet's weather, as well as highlight any other environmental conditions that may enhance
or affect future astronauts visiting Mars. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is set to
bring us an exciting new look at the red planet as it slowly explores the mysterious world
and hopefully, we will not have to wait too long before we get to see,
hear and enjoy these amazing discoveries.