Perseverance: NASA’s Mars rover lands successfully… to search for traces of life

Mankind’s first Mars specimen collection probe successfully landed on Mars.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that the image rover’Percivirence’ had successfully landed at the Jezero crash zone just north of the Mars equator on the morning of the 19th Korean time.

“The good news is that the rover is in good shape,” said Matt Wallace, deputy director at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

Engineers who oversaw the NASA mission in California cheered when the news of the landing on Mars arrived.

The six-wheeled exploration vehicle Perciviarence is expected to search for traces of life on Mars for at least two years and bring Martian soil to Earth.

As an example, it is assumed that there was a lake in the impact hole, and if there was real water, there is a possibility that life could have existed.

Percivirence landed on Mars at 5:55 am Korean time on the 19th.

In the past, NASA officials hugged each other and gave high fives, but this time, they observed the new coronavirus infection (Corona 19) quarantine rules and expressed joy from a distance.

But the heat was obviously hot. Immediately after landing, Percivirence sent two pictures of the surface of Mars, taken with cameras mounted in the front and rear.

There was dust, but it was a picture that could see the surface of Mars.

After landing, the exploration rover traveled about 2 km southeast to investigate the impact hole as an example.

“It landed well on a flat surface,” said Alan Chen, who led the project. “It means we found a successful parking space and landed a safe rover. Our team is more proud than ever.” Said.

NASA Acting Director Steve Jurchik said, “I applaud the team that has made great achievements in a difficult situation facing various hardships and challenges, including Corona 19.”

JPL Director Mike Watkins said, “The research that continues in the next few days has a special meaning. On behalf of the planet, we have sent a representative to a place no one has been to.”

Landing on Mars has never been easier.

NASA is the best group of experts in the field, but even these have been very cautious about their potential for success until the day of the landing.

In particular, the difficulty was higher because this probe is the second one-ton Mars probe of the NASA.

The first one-ton probe,’Curier City’, landed at another crash site in 2012. The innovative technologies that the Curious City experimented at the time had a good influence on the persistence of today.

NASA’s controllers will go through the landing process over the next few days to make sure there are no damaged systems.

The mast of the Persianence, equipped with the main camera system, must also be raised.

Software designed to land on Mars’ surface should also be replaced with software designed to drive on Mars’ surface.

Above all, engineers and scientists will analyze the characteristics of nearby terrain based on photos taken by Percivirence next week.

Persistence also has a special test on Mars.

First of all, the first goal is a flight experiment. Percivirence carried the world’s first small helicopter to attempt power flight on another planet. It is an experiment that can be described as the “right brothers moment” on Mars.

After the flight test is over, the robot moves to the delta terrain detected by the satellite and performs this mission.

Delta is formed by depositing sediments as rivers enter larger bodies of water.

Scientists hope that as an example, the delta will serve as convincing evidence of past biology on Mars.

Perseverance takes a sample of the soil of the delta and detects carbonate rock through satellite.

Move to the edge of the impact sphere.

On Earth, such an environment is advantageous for soil sampling.

Persistence is loaded with tools to help investigate every formation down to the finest level.

As an example of a width of 45 km, the crash zone was named after a village in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In Slavic, the word “as an example” means “lake”.

Examples include several types of rocks, including clay and carbonate.

It is also possible that these rocks contain types of organic molecules that suggest the existence of life in the past.

Particularly interesting is the “tub ring” in the shape of sediment piled up on the shoreline of an ancient lake.

Here, Percivirence can also find piles of dirt on Earth called stromatolites.

“In some lakes, microbial mats and carbonates can interact to form such large, layered hills,” explains Dr. Brioni Horgan, a scientific researcher at Purdue University in Indiana.

He told the BBC, “If we find such a hill in the example, we will head right there, because it could be a sacred place for Mars space biology.”

Percivirence will pick the most interesting rocks, wrap them in small tubes, and leave them on the surface.

NASA and the European Space Agency (Esa) devised a multi-billion dollar plan to bring them to Earth within 10 years.

An example is a complex plan involving a second probe, a Mars rocket, and a giant satellite to transport the rocks from the impact hole to Earth.

Delivering specimens is a logical and essential next step in the exploration of Mars.

However, even if we find that Persistence looks like a living thing, the arguments on the evidence are likely to be mixed.

The debate about life on Mars can only be ended by bringing the rocks to Earth and analyzing them more precisely.