NASA's Perseverance

    Nearly seven months and about 2.5 billion dollars later, NASA launched and landed a new and upgraded version of the Curiosity Rover now called Perseverance. This past year was challenging to say the least with everything thrown at us, but with the circumstances that we were given, NASA was able to build a send off a rover that may be able to answer the question we have been asking our whole life, is there life on other planets? NASA’s Administrator, Steve Jurczyk, said, “The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission embodies our nation’s spirit of persevering even in the most challenging of situations, inspiring, and advancing science and exploration. The mission itself personifies the human ideal of persevering toward the future and will help us prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet” this landing is one of the most pivotal moments for space exploration globally, and because we did not give up during the year we have had, we were able to land one of the most advanced rovers ever built. 

Perseverance touchdown on Mars on February 18th, 2021. Back at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the team broke out in celebrations as the rover relayed a signal back to Earth via the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter confirming its safe arrival. One thing I thought was interesting, is that it takes roughly eleven minutes for the signal from Mars to reach Earth. So technically, Perseverance was already on Mars safely before the team back at NASA even knew. This is the largest, and the most advanced rover that NASA has ever sent to another world, so you can imagine just how nerve-wracking a trip like this would be. Another cool thing about this rover is that it is the first rover to have microphones on it to be able to detect sound on the spacecraft as well as on Mars. The image below was the first colored image that was taken by Perseverance on Mars which caused the entire team to break out in celebrations once again as they admired the martian planet.  

Before Perseverance embarks on its two-year-long journey, it will first undergo some test runs that are run by astrobiologists and robotic geologists back at NASA. As I mentioned in the beginning, one main mission is to search for past life on Mars and collect samples to send back to Mars. This will allow scientists from NASA and ESA to study these samples with instruments that were simply too large and complex to send with the rover to Mars. However, this data will not be able to reach Earth for about another decade since another rover will be sent over to collect the data and send it back to Earth. The landing site they chose for Perseverance was the crater Jerazo. The reason for this location was because there was clear evidence that at one time in the past, this crater was filled with water, and since the rim of the crater is rich in sediment, it is a great place to look for preserved biological material. It's weird to think that we could actually find past life on this planet because it was always just talk. After dreaming about discovering life on other planets, we may just have that opportunity with this new rover. 

Works Cited

Drake, Nadia. “NASA's Perseverance Rover Has Just Landed on Mars.” Science, National Geographic, 18 Feb. 2021, www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/nasa-perseverance-rover-has-just-landed-on-mars. 

Grossman, Lisa. “NASA's Perseverance Rover Has Touched down on Mars.” Science News, 21 Feb. 2021, www.sciencenews.org/article/mars-how-watch-nasa-perseverance-lander-touch-down. 

“Touchdown! NASA's Mars Perseverance Rover Safely Lands on Red Planet – NASA's Mars Exploration Program.” NASA, NASA, 19 Feb. 2021, mars.nasa.gov/news/8865/touchdown-nasas-mars-perseverance-rover-safely-lands-on-red-planet/.