This past year, 2020, was a bit crazy for humanity. Understandably, not many individuals noticed that we had three new martian rovers headed to the red planet. NASA’s Mars 2020 “Perseverance” rover; ExoMars 2020 “Rosalind Franklin” rover, run by both the European Space Agency and Russia’s Roscosmos; and the Mars 2020 mission of the China National Space Administration with the “Zhurong” rover. This will mark the first time that there has been simultaneous presence by multiple nations on the Martian surface, which is a big deal for the scientific community. While there are many tantalizing discoveries to be made by each mission, NASA’s “Perseverance” may be the most ambitious, and today marks the one-year anniversary of it’s launch.
So what’s the mission? The rover and it’s instruments were specifically designed to look for signs of ancient life. On July 30, 2020, an Atlas V rocket launched the Perseverance rover, and a small helicopter-style drone called “Ingenuity”, towards the red planet, with plans to touchdown in a spot called “Jezero Crater”. This spot was chosen specifically because scientists believe it to be home to a pristine ancient river delta deposit, as well as lakebed; a fine place to look for ancient signs of life. On February 18, 2021, Perseverance along with Ingenuity successfully landed near Jezero Crater, and they have been busy ever since.
How does Perseverance search for life? Well, it has several next-generation on-board scientific instruments. The instruments are:
Mastcam-Z: An advanced camera system with panoramic as well as stereoscopic imaging capability and the ability to zoom with very high resolution. The instrument can also help scientists assess the mineralogy of Martian samples and assist with rover operations.
Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA): Measures certain aspects of the Martian atmosphere, including wind speed, temperature, humidity, etc
Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE): This one is fascinating; this is a test run for a technology that will allow future Martian colonies to create oxygen by extracting it from carbon dioxide, which is plentiful on the red planet.
Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry: An X-ray fluorescence spectrometer with a high-resolution camera.
Radar Imager for Mars' Subsurface Experiment (RIMFAX): Radar system used to see up to ten meters under the Martian surface; will be used to look for potential water deposits as well.
Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals (SHERLOC): A spectrometer to provide fine-scale imaging and use an ultraviolet (UV) laser to determine fine-scale mineralogy and detect organic compounds that may have once seeded life.
Supercam: Provides imaging, chemical composition analysis, and mineralogy. The instrument can detect the presence of organic compounds in rocks and regolith from a distance of up to seven meters.
Robotic arm: This seven foot long arm has many functions, including retrieving samples of the Martian surface for later retrieval.
As can be implied, the Perseverance rover has no shortage of scientific instruments at its disposal, which should hopefully lead to fascinating new discoveries. The design for the rover has taken quite a bit of inspiration from the “Curiosity” rover, while ditching every aspect that didn’t work with it’s predecessor. Ingenuity took its first flight on April 19, 2020, marking the first time humans have accomplished powered flight on another planet; no small feat. As a symbol of this accomplishment, the Ingenuity copter has a very small piece of cloth from the Wright brothers first aircraft attached to it. Perseverance got to watch the whole thing, while performing mission functions of course. While this is all very impressive, it isn’t the most ambitious part of this mission.
What’s so ambitious? The Perseverance mission is actually part one of a two-part mission; to bring Martian samples, from the surface, back to Earth. The Perseverance rover will fill small tubes with promising samples of the Martian surface, and deposit them on the surface after taking scientific measurements. In 2026, NASA and the ESA plan to send a lander towards the red planet, with hopes of touching down sometime in 2028. Next, after the lander has landed, a second “retrieval” rover will be expelled to retrieve the original samples left by Perseverance, and return them to the lander. After this is done, the samples will be jettisoned into the Martian atmosphere, where they will be recovered by an orbiting return vehicle. Finally, the samples are expected to make it back to Earth sometime in the early 2030’s. This is by far one of the most ambitious steps humanity has taken in understanding our universe around us, and brings us one step closer to taking our first steps on the red Martian surface.
Sources:
Mars.Nasa.Gov. “Concepts for Mars Sample Return.” NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, 2021, mars.nasa.gov/mars-exploration/missions/mars-sample-return.
---. “Robotic Arm.” NASA Mars, 2021, mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/arm.
---. “Science.” NASA Mars, 2021, mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/science.
“Curiosity Mission.” Nasa, 2021, mars.nasa.gov/msl/home.
“Mars 2020: Perseverance Rover Has Landed.” Natural History Museum, 2021, www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2021/february/mars-2020-perseverance-rover-has-landed.html.
---. “Jezero Crater - Perseverance Landing Site.” NASA Mars, 2021, mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/science/landing-site.
“3 Rovers Will Head to Mars in 2020. Here’s What You Need to Know about Their Chemical Missions.” Acs.Org, 2021, cen.acs.org/physical-chemistry/astrochemistry/3-rovers-head-Mars-2020/97/i29.
NASA. “Mars on a Black Background.” Unsplash, 3 Mar. 2021, unsplash.com/photos/N3BQHYOVq5E.
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