A lingering question that scientists have always pondered over and spent millions to find the answer to was if there ever was life on Mars. NASA’s Perseverance is now on a mission to find out. Scientists have said that they have strong evidence to prove that Mars used to be habitable once when it was warmer and wetter. The rover that is on a mission now aims to find out if life had ever thrived on the red planet.
The rover will be collecting rock samples over several years that will be sent back to Earth in the 2030s for further investigation.
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Perseverance is complex and the biggest and most sophisticated object to be sent to Mars. It is scheduled to enter the atmosphere of Mars shortly after 3 pm (Eastern Standard Time) where it will be protected by its heat shield. However, the biggest risk still exists as the seven minutes of landing are supposed to be the most dreadful moments.
A supersonic parachute along with an eight-engined jetpack will be slowing the speed of the rover.
Perseverance will be digging its first samples in summer. The engineers of the rover have already planned the trajectory that the rover will cover starting with the delta, ancient lakeshore, and finally the caters.
“We astrobiologists have been dreaming about this mission for decades,” said Mary Voytek, head of NASA’s astrobiology program
Perseverance’s top speed is 0.1 miles per hour- which is faster than any of its predecessors. It is as big as an SUV and weighs a ton. Besides its long robotic arms, it also has 19 cameras. Despite that, the rover must bring back samples from Mars so that further experiments can be conducted with it. Two installed microphones will also try to capture the soundscape of Mars.
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This is the fifth rover that will set its wheels on Mars.
