[위클리 스마트] Will the US probe find signs of life on Mars?

Mars Exploration Rover Perservance lands in the crater as an example

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Jeong Yoon-joo = As the U.S. Mars unmanned rover (Rover)’Perseverance’ has successfully settled, attention is once again focused on the existence of Martian life.

After being launched on an Atlas V rocket in July of last year, Perservance arrived on Mars after a flight of about 471 million km.

According to the scientific community on the 20th, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) landed Perservance in the crater of Jezero, believed to be an ancient delta near the Mars equator on the 18th (local time).

This Perservance’s exploration to Mars is meaningful in that it finds traces of ancient life.

Perseverance takes samples of Martian soil and rocks.

NASA plans to launch additional probes afterwards to collect samples stored by Perservance and bring them to Earth in 2031.

At the same time, Earth uses high-performance equipment to search for traces of life on Mars.

In particular, Perseverance is the largest and most powerful exploration rover NASA has ever sent to Mars.

The equipment installed in Perseverance is also high-performance. The facility carried 19 cameras, 2 microphones, a 2m long robot arm, laser, and drill.

The high-performance microphone plans to record the sound of Mars landing and Mars wind.

As an example of where Perseverance landed, the crater is also a place where it is highly likely to find traces of life. This is because it is an area that is believed to have flowed through rivers in ancient times.

“This Mars rover in the US is different from previous Mars rovers in that it lands in an area that is more likely to find traces of life,” said Shim Chae-kyung, a senior researcher at the Korea Astronomical Research Institute. “For example, the crater It is more likely to find traces of life by taking traces of water in the past.”

Mars, the fourth planet in the solar system, has an extremely low surface temperature of -20 degrees Celsius and an atmospheric pressure of only one 150th of the Earth.

It is a harsh environment for life, but it is known that the temperature of Mars was warm billions of years ago and there were waters such as seas and lakes. In addition to the United States, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and China are also focusing on finding traces of ancient life by launching Mars probes.

Like this, many countries around the world are competing for Mars exploration, but Korea is still in a situation where exploration of Mars is not feasible.

Although the government is considering exploring Mars, there is no specific plan.

First of all, Korea aims to explore the moon according to the 3rd Basic Space Development Promotion Plan.

Since Mars is farther away from Earth than the Moon, it is generally believed that the lunar exploration must be conducted before Mars can be explored.

Korea plans to launch a lunar orbiter in 2022 and a lunar lander in 2030.

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2021/02/20 10:00 sent