for decades the standard perception of
mars has been almost black and white in
its simplicity it is known to be a
barren freeze-dried and rust-ruddy
planet today however nasa's perseverance
rover has now confirmed that eons ago
the planets was a warm wet and more
aquamarine world with rivers lakes
oceans and perhaps even life on its
surface let's look at some of these new
findings made by the rover as it
continues its journey on the red planet
nasa's perseverance rover isn't just
exploring the red planet the
life-hunting robot will also help a
little bit of mars make it to earth a
decade or so from now if all goes
according to plan
perseverance the centerpiece of nasa's
2.7 billion dollar mars 2020 mission
touched out inside the red planet's
jezreel crater on february 18 2021 the
car-sized robot will search for evidence
of past microbial life and collect
several dozen samples for future return
to earth among other ambitious tasks
like its predecessor the curiosity the
perseverance rover was built by
engineers and scientists at nasa's jet
propulsion laboratory in pasadena
california roughly 85 percent of
perseverance's mass is based on
curiosity's heritage hardware saving
nasa time and money and reducing risk
considerably agency officials have said
perseverance is about ten feet long not
including its robotic arm nine feet wide
and seven feet tall at two thousand two
hundred and sixty pounds perseverance
weighs less than a compact car the rover
has a rectangular body six wheels a
robotic arm a drill for sampling rocks
cameras and scientific instruments
but those instruments are quite
different from the gear aboard curiosity
because the two rovers have divergent
goals
curiosity's main task involves assessing
the habitability of ancient mars whereas
perseverance will hunt for evidence of
ancient martians perseverance also use
the same entry descent and landing or
edl strategy as its predecessors it hit
the martian atmosphere at tremendous
speeds deployed a supersonic parachute
after friction slowed them down enough
and was finally lowered gently to the
red dirt on cables by a rocket powered
sky crane
perseverance has 23 cameras several of
them filmed the rover's mars arrival
capturing its landing in historic and
unprecedented detail some of these
cameras can provide more color in 3d
images than other rovers while the
previous rovers have all captured one
megapixel images and black and white
with their engineering cameras the ones
aboard the perseverance can acquire high
resolution 20 megapixel color images
their wider field of view means that
instead of spending time taking multiple
images to be stitched together on the
ground the new cameras capture the same
view and a single snapshot the cameras
also reduce motion blur so they can take
photos while the rover is traveling
perseverance may spot convincing signs
of ancient life on the martian surface
something akin to a fossilized
stromatolite here on earth that's a tall
order for a lonely robot on a far away
world however so it's more likely that
the rover's life hunting data will be
suggestive at best mission team members
have said but perseverance will allow
scientists to get much better and more
detailed looks at promising samples by
kicking off humanity's first ever mars
sample return campaign the rover will
drill at least 20 rock cores and
possibly even 30 to 40. this mars
material will be secured in special
sample tubes and deposited at select
locations for retrieval by a joint nasa
european space agency campaign
according to nasa the belly of the rover
houses all the equipment and supplies
needed to collect samples it contains a
rotating drill carousel which is a wheel
that contains different kinds of drill
bits while the rover's big arm reaches
out and drills rock the rover belly is
home to a small robotic arm that works
as a lab assistant to the big arm the
small arm picks up and moves new sample
tubes to the drill and transfers filled
sample containers into a space where
they are sealed and stored
if all goes according to plan the
samples will get to earth as early as 20
31. scientists around the world will
then use powerful instruments to search
them for signs of life and clues about
mars long-ago transition from a
relatively warm and wet world to the
cold desert planet it is today such work
will continue for decades after all
scientists are still studying the moon
rocks brought home by nasa's apollo
astronauts half a century ago the rover
is hard at work collecting and studying
samples at its landing site in jezero
crater the crater offers geologically
rich terrain with landforms reaching as
far back as 3.6 billion years old that
could potentially answer important
questions in planetary evolution and
astrobiology getting samples from this
unique area will revolutionize how we
think about mars and its ability to
harbor life perseverance has spent the
year rolling around the bottom of the
crater making a host of surprising
discoveries one of which is that
jezero's floor is made of igneous rocks
these formed as molten rock cooled and
solidified billions of years ago some
researchers had thought that the crater
floor would be made of sedimentary rock
created as wind or water deposit layers
of sediment over time but the rover
found a different history for the
landscape igneous rocks are important
because scientists can analyze the
radioactive decay of elements inside
them to determine how old the rocks are
if and when perseverance's samples come
back to earth researchers will be able
to date rocks from specific places on
the surface of mars for the first time
scientists discovered that jezero's
floor wasn't what they expected when the
rover began preparing to drill its first
sample
exploring the area's geology
perseverance ground into a piece of
martian rock to reveal a fresh surface
it looked like an igneous rock on earth
that had salt rimmed holes in it holes
that had probably formed as water flowed
through the rock
that meant the rover was looking at an
ancient volcanic rock that had
interacted with water indicating a
life-friendly environment such as had
never been seen on mars but when
perseverance tried to drill a core the
material crumbled and slid out of the
sampling device because the sampling
procedure was automated the rover ended
up with an empty but sealed tube which
mission scientists tried to put a
positive spin on labeling it a sample of
mars's atmosphere a month later
perseverance successfully drilled its
first pair of cores into a similar
igneous rock that had been altered by
water this rock formation called moz
covers much of jezero's floor the rover
then drove south and west skirting a
dune-ridden area called ceta and
collected two more pairs of samples
mission scientists had thought that
seats as rocks would be sedimentary
because visually they seemed to be
composed of different layers but as soon
as perseverance ground away at some of
the sata rocks another surprise emerged
they too were igneous using various
instruments to analyze the rock's
chemical composition perseverance found
chunky grains of one mineral called
olivine encased in another called
pyroxene these minerals are generally
found in igneous rocks or volcanic areas
on earth that's strong evidence that the
seta rocks formed as a large body of
molten rock cooled olivine crystals
would have formed first and sunk towards
the bottom of the cooling magma and then
pryoxin would have formed around them
creating layered rocks that appear
sedimentary the seeds of rocks like the
moss rocks also show signs of having
interacted with water in the past they
might even contain organic molecules
probably produced through non-biological
processes such as those seen in some
martian meteorites
despite the rover's success so far
pressure is mounting for it to get to
its next destination to continue sample
collection perseverance is making its
way there now as quickly as possible
earlier this month it set a record for
long-distance driving on mars traveling
more than 240 meters in a day even so it
probably won't get to the delta for a
while time is of the essence because
perseverance has only about one earth
year remaining to meet the timetable for
accomplishing its main to-do list get to
the delta collect samples there and
drive up onto the crater rim to place
them somewhere for pickup the rover is
currently retracing its steps towards
its landing site it will collect another
pair of cores from moths along the way
and then detour around the dune-filled
region to reach the delta although
operations have mostly been smooth some
small glitches have occurred besides the
initial failed attempt to collect a rock
core in december some pebbles fell out
during a coring attempt and jammed some
of the mechanisms in the rover sampling
equipment in another incident
surprisingly strong winds kicked dust
and small pebbles into several of the
rover's wind sensors damaging them nasa
hopes that the rover will continue to
overcome these challenges so we may
further learn the history of water on
mars if you found this video
informational you may also enjoy this
one which looks into what has been found
on mars so far do you think life once
existed on mars please let us know in
the comments below