On the 30th of July, 2020, NASA launched one of its biggest investments yet. The Mars 2020 mission includes the Perseverance, which is the heaviest, largest, and most sophisticated rover NASA has sent to the planet. The rover’s main task is to directly follow up on 2012’s Curiosity, where the team found evidence for the hypothesis that the red planet has an environment that may support microbial life.
On February 18, 2021, Mars 2020 touched down on Mars at the Jezero Crater, which would later be renamed Octavia E. Butler Landing. It has been two months since that triumphant day, and we bring you a recap of everything you need to know about NASA’s most sophisticated rover to have embarked on the exploration of the red planet.
Ride-Along Experience
The Mars 2020 spacecraft, as well as the Perseverance rover, is equipped with 23 cameras. No mission has ever been this well-equipped, which gives scientists the insurance of high-quality images of the whole mission. From the touchdown and throughout the whole exploration, these images will give the team a better look at the environment, landscapes, and scientific specimens. Moreover, these raw images are available to the public, via the mission’s website.
Perseverance Draws Knowledge from the Previous Rovers
The Perseverance is the fourth rover NASA has sent to the red planet. The first two were Spirit and Opportunity, which landed on Mars back in 2004. The team made a breakthrough when these two rovers discovered pieces of evidence, which showed that Mars had running water, long before it became the freezing desert planet that it currently is. Not long after, NASA shelled out more investment money for the recent Curiosity rover which landed on the red planet in 2012. This expedition achieved further scientific evidence of connecting rivers that existed on the planet. Moreover, it provided evidence for the possibility of microbial life. The Perseverance rover will build upon these findings and will embark on the search for evidence of the prior existence of life on the planet.
Strategic Location for Better Chance of Success
Mars 2020 landed on Jezero Crater, which has the insurance of the highest probability of locating evidence of signs of past microbial life. It is located just in the westernmost region of Isidis Planitia, a massive basin, north of the Martian equator. About 3 billion or 4 billion years ago, Jezero was home to a river that flowed to a river similar in size to that of Lake Tahoe.
Perseverance Will Also Look into Geology and Climate
Before this promising mission, NASA’s team has been looking into Jezero Crater through several Mars orbiters that have been collecting images in search of signs of ancient life on the freezing planet. To their credit, they’ve collected sufficient data which led to the Mars 2020 mission. Perseverance now embarks on a surface exploration to not only find signs of the prior existence of life but also the conditions and climate to which enabled it as well. Although our planet and Mars have similar beginnings, this mission may provide the reasons why the red planet has ended up in such a contrasting state.
Perseverance is Only the First Part of a Round Trip to Mars
NASA has made further investments for a second leg to the Mars 2020 mission. Aboard the Perseverance is the first-ever sample-gathering system that will collect samples that will make their way back to earth via a future mission. NASA, in partnership, with the European Space Agency, is planning on the Mars Sample Return campaign. Our planet’s space agencies are home to the largest and most sophisticated instruments that will examine the samples gathered by Perseverance to determine if there was ancient life on Mars.
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