My Royal Eminence,
That up there is Perseverance, a car sized rover, manufactured by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, designed to explore Mars. It was launched on 30th July 2020 and successfully landed on 18th February 2021. Popularly known by its nickname, Percy, It has been part of NASA’s Mars 2020 mission exploring crater Jezero on the red planet.
On 7th September 2021, it collected its first rock sample that is now enclosed in an air tight titanium sample tube. It will be retrieved in the future as ‘’The Mars Sample Return Campaign’’ by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are waiting on the planned return of the sample tubes for further studies.
‘’This is a momentous achievement and I can’t wait to see the incredible discoveries produced by perseverance and our team.’’
-Nasa Administrator Bill Nelson
The rover is identifying and collecting samples of rock and dust, while simultaneously searching for signs of ancient microscopic life. It is also capable of understanding the geology of the planet, like what’s inside the soil, as well as characterizing past climate. We are not only seeking signs of habitable conditions but signs of past life itself. Has it held life before? Can it hold life (again)?
The mission is also providing opportunities to gather knowledge and demonstrate the abilities our technologies have in addressing challenges of expeditions by humans, to Mars and even beyond. These include; Testing methods for producing oxygen, identifying subsurface water, characterizing weather and dust, and/or anything else that might affect future humans living and working on Mars.
Yeah, ‘living’ and ‘working’ on Mars.
Not a Hollywood fantasy anymore.
BELIEVE