Launch: July 30, 2020
Landing: Feb. 18, 2021, Jezero Crater, Mars
Just recently occurring, the Perseverence Rover had landed on mars after around 7 months of travel through space. With the last rover being launched in November of 2011, this is a major occasion that will be able to provide us with more information on
The Perseverance Rover will search for signs of ancient life on mars, which will advance NASA’s exploration of mars. The rover is equipt with a drill to collect core samples of Martian rock and soil, then store them in sealed tubes for pickup by a future mission that would take them back to Earth for more analysis.
Mars showed evidence of past river valleys, lakes and present ice in glaciers and in the ground.
Searching for Ancient Life, Gathering Rocks and Soil
There are many ways that the mission helps pave the way for future human expeditions to Mars. These include testing a method for producing oxygen from the its atmosphere, identifying other resources (such as subsurface water), improving landing techniques, and learning more about the weather, dust, and other potential environmental conditions that could affect future astronauts living and working on Mars.
Perseverance tests a technology for extracting oxygen from the Martian atmosphere.This demonstration helps mission planners test ways of using Mars’ natural resources to support human explorers and improve designs for life support, transportation, and other important systems for living and working on Mars. The rover also monitors weather and dust in the Martian atmosphere. Such studies are important for understanding daily and seasonal changes on Mars, and will help future human explorers better predict Martian weather.
Here is an animation of the landing:
Here is the actual footage of the landing:
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