Scientific Perseverance

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            On July 30th, 2020 NASA launched a rocket towards Mars carrying a sophisticated rover known as Perseverance. The spaceflight took six-and-a-half months to travel 471 million kilometers and reach its destination. Once the spacecraft had arrived at the upper Martian atmosphere, it began the treacherous landing stage which requires full autonomy. The multi-stage descent utilized a combination of heatshields, parachutes, and a sky crane to ensure a safe landing velocity.  On February 18th, 2021 the spacecraft touched down on the Martian soil and transmitted its first picture. Additionally, Perseverance recorded the entire descent program which was subsequently transmitted a couple days later. This visual data can help further improve landing procedures for future planetary travel.

  This tremendous accomplishment required immense physical, electrical, chemical and software expertise, among a plethora of others. One of the major goals of the Perseverance Mars mission is to analyze rock and soil samples for indications of past microorganisms. The landing destination, Jezero Crater, was purposefully chosen because it was the region with the highest probability of having biological traces. Mars used to have large bodies of water, a key ingredient for life, that carved themselves into the surface of the planet. Nowadays, evidence of past rivers, lakes, and deltas can be seen from the geological erosion like that found on Earth. Jezero Crater is believed to be an ancient lake that may have clues or signs that could indicate past life. I think Perseverance’s potential to discovery extraterrestrial life speaks for itself and its importance of the mission.

With this goal in mind, Perseverance is equipped with cutting-edge instruments capable of collecting samples, performing chemical analysis, and testing concepts that may help with future Mars colonization. The coring drill of the rover allows for sample acquisition of intact rock which can reveal signs of past geological events. These cores can then be sealed and deposited on the planets surface for future recovery missions. Perseverance possesses tools that allow for the chemical identification of an object. These tools are given funny acronym names to shield their lengthy scientific names. PIXL, SHERLOC, and SuperCam are the instruments that utilize lasers to probe and analyze the chemical composition of samples. These will be especially useful when scanning for organic molecules present on the surface because they may be indications of biological activity.


             Lastly, Perseverance has two important experiments that it will be conducting while on Mars: testing oxygen synthesis from the Martian atmosphere and assessing the viability of Martian helicopters. The rover has a technology know as MOXIE which is testing a method in which carbon dioxide from the atmosphere can be converted into useful oxygen. This has implications on the future of Mars colonization because this method may be the key for efficient life support and fuel production capabilities. Finally, the hitchhiker known as Ingenuity is a small 4-pound helicopter that will be making its debut flight in the next coming months. This technology has exciting implications for scouting hard-to-reach areas and for the development of larger aerial Martian rovers. 


References:

  • NASA/JPL-Caltech. "Mars Perseverance Press Kit", Jan. 21, 2021. Mars.nasa.gov
  • Choi, C. 2019. "Mars: What We Know About the Red Planet", Space.com
  • Potter, S. 2021. "NASA's Mars Perseverance Rover Provides Front-Row Seat to Landing, First Audio Recording of Red Planet", nasa.gov

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