Things you need to know about the Perseverance Rover!
On February 18, 2021, NASA’s Perseverance rover will land on Mars, planet number four from the Sun. Although Mars is the next planet from Earth and Perseverance is travelling at a very high speed, it still took around seven months for the trip from Earth to the Martian environment. This gives an idea of the enormous distances between planets in the solar system.
Perseverance is the most complicated piece of technology that we have sent to another planet(and possibly the most complex instrument that we have ever constructed). This blog will tell you why you should be pumped about this historic mission, whether you are a space lover or not.
It will search for ancient life on Mars.
Have you ever wondered if there is life elsewhere? Well, this mission will answer a similar question. Perseverance is designed to see if there was life on Mars before it transformed into a giant, remarkably Earth-like desert. And there is a good reason for this. Evidence from previous missions suggests that Mars once had an environment which was very similar to Earth, with liquid water on its surface and a magnetic field that prevented its atmosphere from being lost to space. These are precisely the conditions Earth had when life first evolved here. The question arises that if life developed here, on our blue world, then could life have formed on Mars too? If life did develop there, then we should observe signs of ancient micro-organisms before they were baked alive in the suddenly hostile environment. We have already seen signs of water in Martian soil, so this mission is critical. If signs of life are found, well, that can certainly change the whole picture of the universe by answering one of the most asked questions since modern science began. And Perseverance doesn’t waste any time in its mission: the landing site is the bottom of an ancient lake on Mars.
It has an onboard “Mars Helicopter.”
Along with searching for signs of life in an ancient rocky world, the rover will also have an onboard technological demonstration: a drone.
This drone, the Mars Helicopter, will be the first attempt at powered flight on another planet, which was a challenging build. Here’s why: On Earth, we can fly a drone almost anywhere. However, that isn’t the case on Mars! Mars has an atmosphere that is 100 times less dense than that of Earth. Which means that if a kilogram of air can fit in a 1-meter cube on Earth, then we can hold only 1% of the mass of air in a cube on Mars. All of this is to say that, this helicopter has to be crazy powerful to generate enough lift to attain flight. Although the helicopter’s flight times are about 90 seconds, it is still a technological feat if it succeeds. Why?
This helicopter needs to stay warm in the freezing nights of Mars (-73 degree Celsius or -100 degree Fahrenheit). And it needs to fly without human control too. Most of you may be thinking: “A drone without human control on another PLANET? Yeah right, good luck”. But this is essential and has to be done. There is no way out of it. Remember how I said that the distance between planets is significant? Here is another idea of how large. It takes electromagnetic waves(light) 12 minutes to reach from Mars to Earth. And light is the fastest thing in the universe. The communication lag from JPL(Jet Propulsion Laboratory) to the helicopter and back prevents us from controlling the rover live. Who knows what might happen to the helicopter when the command to evade a boulder might still be on it’s way to Mars?
The rover has cameras — a lot of them.
There are other fascinating science-related reasons for keeping an eye out for Perseverance.
But who wants to hear someone talk about science, right?
Now, for the first time, you will be able to see the live footage of the landing! I don’t know about you but how cool is that! Perseverance has twenty-three cameras and two microphones onboard. So as the spacecraft goes through the “Seven minutes of terror”, during which it needs to slow down from fifteen times the speed of a bullet to 0, we will be able to see HD video and audio as the rover lands on Mars to start its mission.
So these are the reasons why anyone should be eagerly waiting for the words: “Touchdown confirmed. We are safe on Mars.” from JPL. It is a milestone in human history and brings a lot closer to sending humans to Mars. Stay on the lookout for the landing.
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Thanks for reading!
