NASA’s Perseverance Rover to Seek Signs of Life on Mars

By Bob Granath

Latest Mission to Mars: NASA’s Perseverance rover is part of the agency’s Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the Red Planet.

Launch: 7:50 a.m. EDT, Thursday, July 30, 2020

Lift Off: Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

Lift off is scheduled for an opportunity, or launch window, during July or August 2020 when the Earth and Mars are in positions relative to each other for the most efficient path to a landing on the Red Planet. It takes less power to travel to Mars during this alignment, compared to other times when Earth and Mars are farther apart in their orbits around the Sun.

Launch Vehicle: To boost Perseverance, a 200-foot-tall Untied Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with four solid rocket boosters and a single engine Centaur upper stage is required. The launch vehicle will propel the spacecraft at a speed of 24,785 mph for its 442 million mile, seven-month trip to the Mars.

Spacecraft: Perseverance is a robotic “scientist” weighing just under 2,300 pounds. Manufactured at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, the rover has six 20.7-inch aluminum wheels covered with cleats for traction and curved titanium spokes for support.

Arrival at Mars: The spacecraft is scheduled to land in the Mars Jezero Crater during February 2021.

Mission on Mars: The Perseverance mission goals include answering questions about the potential for life on Mars. The objectives are not only to seek signs of habitable conditions, but also to search for signs of past microbial life. The rover is equipped with a drill that can collect core samples of the most promising rocks and soils and set them aside and stored in a “cache” on the surface of Mars.

The mission also provides opportunities to gather knowledge and demonstrate technologies that aid in preparing for future human expeditions to Mars. These include testing a method for producing oxygen from the Martian atmosphere, identifying resources such as subsurface water, improving landing techniques. The rover also will characterize weather, dust and other potential environmental conditions that could affect future astronauts living and working on the Red Planet.

Perseverance Rover at Work

This illustration depicts NASA’s Perseverance rover operating on the surface of Mars after landing in the Red Planet’s Jezero Crater in February 2021. Photo credit: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory-Caltech

© 2020 SpaceAgeChronicle.com All Rights Reserved.

Behind Perseverance – The Next Mars Rover

Check out this short video on the thousands of people and years of hard work it took to get NASA’s Mars Perseverance spacecraft ready for its trip from Earth to the Red Planet.

Video courtesy of NASA