NASA has geared up to launch its next mission to Mars — the Mars 2020 Perseverance mission from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Thursday. The rover is expected to land at the Jezero Crater of Mars on February 18, next year. Jezero Crater on Mars was once home to a crater lake and river delta. 

One of its most sophisticated Martian projects yet, the name ‘Perseverance’ embodies NASA’s passion for taking on and overcoming challenges.

The big question about life on Mars

Perseverance is expected to answer a question that has intrigued scientists for centuries- Is there life on Mars? The rover will search for signs of past microbial life in Jezero Crater, along with identifying the planet’s geology and climate. It will also collect rock and sediment samples that would be returned to Earth in the future, paving way for human exploration.

This illustration shows Ingenuity awaiting takeoff on Mars. 

“The rover will also ferry a separate technology experiment to the surface of Mars – a helicopter named Ingenuity, the first aircraft to fly in a controlled way on another planet,” said NASA in a press statement

Perseverance will also be carrying the first samples of spacesuit materials ever sent to the Red Planet. The five small pieces of spacesuit material will be studied by an instrument aboard Perseverance called SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals). This might give insights about the type of spacesuit preferable for Mars in the manned mission planned for the future.

Here are the key objectives of the mission as enumerated by NASA:

Jezero Crater on Mars: The rover’s landing ellipse is marked by the black circle

• Explore a geologically diverse landing site

• Assess ancient habitability

• Seek signs of ancient life, particularly in special rocks known to preserve signs of life over time

• Gather rock and soil samples that could be returned to Earth by a future NASA mission

• Demonstrate technology for future robotic and human exploration

“We are not a life-detection mission. We are looking for signs of past life on the surface of Mars,” said Adam Steltzner, chief engineer on the Mars 2020 mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

NASA’s Perseverance rover is the third mission to Mars to launch this month. Earlier on July 19, Hope orbiter was launched by the United Arab Emirates. Subsequently, on July 23, China had launched its Tianwen 1 spacecraft, an all-in-one mission consisting of an orbiter, lander, and rover.