NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on Mars quite a while back, and now it has started exploring the planet. The primary aim of the rover and this entire mission is to look for a sign of life. This could be in any form like bacteria, small organisms, or even remnants of old dead organisms. As of now, the rover will be looking into the river delta that is the most likely place to find any sign of life.
More about the perseverance rover mission
It has almost been three weeks since the rover landed on Mars. The exact date of the landing was 18th February. Since then, the first news about the movement of the rover was on March 5th, as reported by Jet Propulsion lab officials. The officials said that the rover moved 4 metres to the front, turned 150 degrees to the left and then moved back by 2.5 metres. And this is just the beginning of the mission, and it was executed perfectly. The Perseverance mobility testbed engineer said, “Our first drive went incredibly well”. The images received by the Mars rover after the first movement also showed the track marks of its wheels. And I have to say that it does look cool.
The recent movement performed by the rover is just a part of the checkup process. It confirms that the rover is free from any hardware issues. And slowly NASA and its team have confirmed that every part of the rover is working the way it’s intended to. In fact, the officials said that they were also surprised by the smoothness of the rover’s movement. As the testing is a success, the officials will move forward with the Mars exploration program with NASA’s perseverance rover.
Exploration plans on Mars
Mars is not an easy place to explore, and there are a lot of regions that can pose a danger to the rover. For this reason, Scientists have figured out two paths to move to the river delta. It hasn’t been yet decided which route will be better for the rover to take, considering all factors. There is also a dilemma on which route to take. This is because one of them is smooth and will provide an easy journey to the exploration region, while the other one has some deposits that can be interesting to explore.
There is still time before the rover moves to the delta of the river. And it is going to happen only after the company deploys the helicopter that it’s carrying in its belly. After the deployment, test flights will be performed on the helicopter over a period of 30 days, and once that’s done, the journey will begin. And the river delta is also not the only place that NASA plans to explore for life samples. There are other places too that they are looking at.
The ultimate goal will be to collect samples and bring them back from Mars to Earth. With the technology we have now, that is not possible yet, but in the coming years, it could be. NASA has also signed a contract worth $84.5 million with Northrop Grumman for the same. The responsibility of the company will be to provide propulsion for the rocket that will carry the samples to the orbit of Mars. The rocket will be carried to Mars in another mission that is not scheduled anytime soon.
What are your thoughts on NASA’s Perseverance rover? And do you think it will be able to find any form of life evidence on the planet? Let us know in the comments below. Also, if you found our content informative, do like it and share it with your friends.
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