are we alone in the universe is one of the oldest questions that humans have ever tried to answer
given how big the cosmos is and how unlikely it seems to be do we actually exist alone there must
have been another habitable planet in the 20th century it became a more specific question could
life have been so Universal that it could have appeared more than once in a solar system if it
had been so profound sci-fi authors were consumed with the idea that life might exist for example
on the planet that is most comparable to our own Mars and just recently NASA just found something
shocking in a martian Rock what could this be let's find out as the tech billionaire Elon Musk
will update us all hello everyone welcome back to Elon Musk Evolution where we bring you the most
recent news about Elon Musk and his multi-billion dollar companies space news and the latest science
and technology but before we begin make sure you subscribe to our Channel and click the
Bell icon so you don't miss any of our amazing videos according to musk imaginations of vast
extraterrestrial civilizations on the red planet have subsided during the past Century however
as our first satellites and probes to visit it returned images showing only arid deserts could
there have been Life on Mars in the past didn't completely go away it was merely reframed not
right now but thousands of years ago and despite all our research up to this point there may be
only one solution as a result of earlier missions we now know that liquid water once existed on Mars
since liquid water is a need for the existence of life this amazing finding from the 1970s was
made possible but it is not proof rather it is a question that if answered positively would
fundamentally alter the way we think about the universe as a whole musk says after all if life
could have evolved twice in our solar system it almost certainly did so elsewhere nevertheless
we cannot be certain of this until we discover the first fossilized sign of Life on an alien
planet so NASA decided to make this perseverance and now let's look at the perseverance Rover's
Maiden Mission the NASA equipment tasked with actually Gathering samples of fossilized microbial
Life on Mars and returning them to us before the end of the decade how did that initial campaign
go could this be the Rover that puts an end to the age-old issue of whether or not we are alone
on July 30 2020 perseverance was launched aboard an atlas V rocket during a fantastic launch window
when Mars and Earth were perfectly aligned for a speedy Rendezvous China and the United Arab
Emirates had also launched a Rover and a probe respectively during this period musk explained
the seven-month Cruise took place during the same launch window and system checks
revealed that perseverance was prepared for the atmospheric entry the most terrifying
part of the flight is landing because of the high speeds and varying temperatures that are involved
yet NASA has done this a lot and appears to be getting better at it every time on their website
NASA has a neat visualization that demonstrates how difficult it is to land a Rover the size of
a car on another planet the crew stage is removed at a distance of around 4 000 kilometers from The
Landing location while traveling at a speed of more than sixteen thousand kilometers per hour
at the height of 120 kilometers thrusters are deployed to stop the vehicle from spinning
perseverance is accelerated to a speed of over nineteen thousand kilometers per
hour but at this point turbulence in the Martian atmosphere causes it to slow down
thrusters are being used to keep the spacecraft stable and to keep the heat shield facing forward
as friction from the atmosphere is heating it up to over 1300 degrees computers on board are
autonomously monitoring its position to keep it aimed at its final Landing goal at 60 kilometers
Up and 16 kilometers from the target things start to become intriguing now that perseverance has
slowed to 3 000 kilometers per hour due to the atmosphere because the spacecraft was equipped
with several video cameras that have allowed us to gain an unprecedented picture of the landing
procedure musk added the enormous 21 meter parachute was released first they're Mighty
things the NASA jet propulsion laboratory's model written in binary code with the GPS location of
GPL on the outside is also a hidden code in there after slowing to 600 kilometers per hour the
heat shield is released reducing the weight and exposing perseverance to the Martian atmosphere
for the first time you might notice the peculiar pattern in red and white this is useful for
scientists to see the orientation of the parachute after the spacecraft is about four kilometers in
the air it starts Imaging the surface to find a safe site to land and when it is satisfied with
the landing spot the spacecraft's upper shell separates leaving just the spacecraft itself
perseverance and The rocket-propelled Descent stage Rockets are required because the parachute
is no longer able to control the fall the rocket stage slows the fall from 300 kilometers per
hour to nothing and hovers 20 meters above the surface because Mars atmosphere is simply too thin
once the Rover is securely on the ground it is then lowered using cables suspended by a device
known as a sky crane and the rocket stage is then let go to crash a safe distance away how beautiful
is that and how amazing to be able to see it for yourself musk remarked the perseverance spacecraft
touched down on Mars on February 18 2021 following a seven-month Journey perseverance is NASA's
most ambitious Rover yet to give you an idea of scale the thing is enormous in essence NASA has
sent a vehicle to Mars but you may have noticed that curiosity's design has strongly influenced
perseverance's design although it may seem nearly identical there have been some significant design
changes made in response to what didn't work well on curiosity one obvious distinction is
the wheels perseverance's wheels are thicker and more robust than Curiosities which have
suffered from considerable wear thus far they are also less wide but have a bigger diameter
the fact that its robotic arm is longer and stronger than the one on curiosity is also
an improvement but the scientific equipment on board is undoubtedly where the most significant
differences lie this is because while curiosity was built to determine whether life once existed
on Mars perseverance is searching for actual proof of prehistoric life according to musk a powerful
camera called the super Cam that utilizes a laser to determine the composition of rocks will be the
first step for it in finding remarkable rocks and it has an extensive Suite of tools to assist
it in doing just that it's not this camera that captures the stunning panoramas you'll
see later instead the camera takes a picture to visually identify what the laser is pointing at
this device however is extremely significant since it can study a rock from a distance of several
meters allowing the Rover to move on to a new area more quickly by eliminating the need to get within
Arm's Reach of a rock it wants to identify once intriguing rocks have been found using the cameras
perseverance can go in closer and investigate them with the spectrometers in its arm the 3D Panorama
cameras are also housed in the Mast and they can zoom focus and take video the Rover has several
different materials on it including space suit Fabric and some with Sherlock Holmes Easter eggs
there are two cameras in the arm a normal color camera called Watson and another laser camera
called Sherlock that can also take microscopic images it's interesting that these images were
discovered in the raw files of the cameras upon investigation it turns out that they
were brought along to test the camera's focusing and that the laser reads the material correctly
this rock sample has a maze on it with a tiny picture of Sherlock Holmes in
the center and 221B Baker the famous address from the books is written on it musk stated
according to reports one of these Rock Cross sections is actually thought to be from Omar's
meteorite if this is the case it would Mark the first time that a rock from Mars has traveled
all the way to Earth and back another of the instruments is essentially a weather
station it will monitor the wind temperature humidity pressure and dust concentration levels
the ground penetrating radar instrument and the somewhat unique experiment module Moxie
are located toward the back of the Rover and will be used to see whether oxygen can be recovered
from the Martian atmosphere as well as to see the geologic structures beneath the surface
even though Mars has a lighter gravity than earth leaving that planet still requires 30 to 40 metric
tons of fuel it is even more difficult to do on Earth and it becomes even more difficult
if you also have to carry all the fuel you will need to return home this is a vital requirement
for the survival of future human colonies and surprisingly there is a way to produce rocket fuel
nevertheless knowing that we may be able to produce the majority or all of that fuel from
the liquid oxygen that is already on the planet make space flight much more likely
the final experiment performed on board pertains to the main goal of perseverance which is to
locate intriguing rocks that may contain microbial fossils once the camera and spectrometers have
located good possibilities the arm is fitted with a drill that may either abrade the top layer of a
rock to reveal the unweathered surface beneath it or if the mission team desires retrieve a sample
from The Rock stated Musk the drill can also extract cores from chunks of rock an arm will
feed the sample through to the Rover's body where a second arm will carry it to a location where it
will be sealed before being placed in one of the 20 onboard caches it's interesting to note that
perseverance was well cleaned prior to launch to prevent contamination of Mars even minute amounts
of gases from the Rover itself may be present in these samples which might cause readings to be off
some witness tubes that can collect molecular and particle impurities come pre-loaded with
witness materials to help combat this according to musk each witness tube will be opened on Mars in
order to record the surrounding environment and then sealed just like the regular sample tubes
perseverance is actually designed as a forerunner Mission once perseverance has
filled all the caches it will place them for another mission to pick up because NASA wants
this to be a sample return mission comparing the witness tubes with the cached samples will allow
scientists to identify the contaminants and remove them but sadly perseverance will not
be able to confirm the existence of microbial Life by itself unfortunately the method for obtaining
these samples has not yet been decided currently a launch for 2026 is planned employing a Rover
to collect the samples and bring them back to a rocket this rocket will then rendezvous with an
Orbiter and in 2028 we will be holding the samples in our hands once they have made the voyage back
to Earth as the Rover turned on its cameras and began to take in its surroundings it found itself
staring out across the red arid and desolate landscape that we have come to expect from Mars
it is a very complicated system so let's hope the mission teams will really get everything right
in the upcoming years although there were a few Rocky outcrops present the surrounding terrain was
primarily flat perseverance was intentionally brought to a location where its Wheels could
move it freely and where it could find sites of exceptional scientific significance so this was
not an accident because of the rock outcroppings that surround the crater jizero crater was their
choice for this purpose my collecting Rock samples from numerous geological periods without the need
for extensive digging perseverance would enable researchers to piece together the jezero craters
geological history also it would spend some time studying the areas of jizero crater close to its
landing spot on what is referred to as the crater floor in order to acquire a better idea of the
places where it is most likely that it will locate life the outcroppings of rock that encircle the
crater suggests that perseverance would be on the Move practically quickly eager to start its task
before moving on to the jizero Delta as part of the Delta front campaign perseverance would
have the ability to gather Rock samples from a variety of geological eras providing it plenty
of chances to begin his hunt you would be mistaken though because despite landing on Mars in February
perseverance didn't make any significant attempts to leave its Landing site and start its trip
until over five months later and this wasn't just because researchers painstakingly tested each and
every piece of scientific gear and its software to make sure everything was operating as intended
you might be surprised to learn that persistence was not alone you could argue that it was because
she was pregnant concealed by a dust screen from the Martian winds and environment cradled in
perseverance's undercarriage perseverance had carried this second passenger with it to Mars
the first few months of perseverance's Life were spent assisting in the birth of a second smaller
passenger who would accompany it on its future Voyage as well as serve as an intriguing Tech
demonstration after doing a number of tests on perseverance's own software and Hardware
scientists shifted their focus to this tiny 1.8 kilogram drone called Ingenuity which was not a
Rover and was the first attempt at a helicopter on Mars it is doubtful whether a helicopter's
rotating blades would even function on Mars since it would be challenging to displace
enough air to produce lift in an environment that is about 100 times thinner than Earth's
the only scientific apparatus on Ingenuity was a camera however to make up for this it
was exceedingly light and its rotor could spin at speeds of over 2000 RPM however this would be
of great assistance to perseverance in determining the best pathways through the possibly challenging
Martian terrain on March 21 nearly a month after landing perseverance started by removing
its Dash Shield allowing Ingenuity to breathe the Martian air they took persistence to finally Place
Ingenuity on the hard Martian soil and give it permission to experience its first cold night on
Mars on April 3. mechanical birthing is a slow process but because scientists are constantly
checking every single piece of data to make sure everything is functioning as it should it takes a
while it is no minor feat that Ingenuity survived the night without experiencing any issues given
that temperatures on Mars can drop to minus 100 degrees Celsius while not inside perseverance's
shielding heaters however scientists were happy that this segment of the mission went without
a hitch at this point in perseverance's Mission it watched Ingenuity take its first wobbly steps
like a proud parent though just like a parent perseverance couldn't resist taking a selfie
or two to show off to its friends on Earth after testing its rotors at various speeds ingenuity's
initial flights weren't entirely trouble-free the software had some problems which alarmed
the engineers who had developed it yet by April 19 perseverance was able to capture footage of
the solar powered drones attempt at the first ever controlled flight on an alien planet since there
were many unknowns and Mars has a lesser gravity than earth the mission was conducted autonomously
this was done since it would take too long for a signal to go from Earth to Mars causing too much
lag besides having thinner air Mars also has a different climate thus testing the rotor on Earth
did not guarantee success there it's challenging to accurately simulate reduced gravity on Earth
for instance but thankfully Ingenuity climbed to a height of 3 meters and lingered there for
39.1 seconds with Incredible smoothness when the tech demo that had been offered just six years
previously had proven to be successful everything went according to plan and scientists were quite
happy it was not anticipated that Ingenuity would survive long on Mars but it kept going
and going flying farther and higher than every previous attempt it didn't crash didn't break
and in fact had turned into a useful Scout for perseverance to find suitable paths for
the Rover to travel or to look for points of curiosity too tiny for satellites to discern as
the mission progressed Ingenuity transformed from a fleeting Tech demonstration to a strong Ally and
collaborator for the perseverance Rover how about perseverance there was some activity going on with
the Mars rover during this time while it waited for Ingenuity perseverance was able to put a lot
of its equipment to the test soon after landing on Mars perseverance hoped to record the first audio
sample ever taken from the Martian surface using a microphone that was on board we now have our
first impression of the sound of the Wind on Mars thanks to perseverance perseverance also spent
time driving short Journeys to test its Motors took panoramas of the surrounding terrain and
even successfully extracted oxygen from carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere of the red planet
using its Moxie instrument also known as the Mars oxygen in situ resource utilization experiment it
succeeded in generating about 10 grams of oxygen in an hour which is not that much but Moxie is
only a prototype and is around the size of a car battery if we were to deploy it on Mars in order
to further human interests it would be required to be 100 times larger nonetheless the very fact that
it functions is a positive step at the location of perseverance's Landing there was a deadly Dune
field full of loose sand that the Rover could not cross without running the risk of becoming stuck
indefinitely which would mean the mission's termination and that ends today's episode
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